Undercover Isn't Always Easy
by ATPD
Summary: Ed has only been a part of the military for four months when he is assigned to go on an undercover mission to track down a serial killer targeting blonde school children. Not only that, but he has to go undercover with Mustang posing as his uncle and Hawkeye his aunt! Not exactly parental (I think) but more of an unwilling uncle sort of thing. No pairings.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist**

* * *

**Chapter One**

Edward Elric was hungry. He wanted a large bowl of spaghetti. Spaghetti with a good sauce and some meat. Then he wanted cake. _Chocolate _cake. With chocolate frosting_. _He couldn't decide whether he wanted sprinkles on top or not.

He was glaring at the bowl in front of him, debating whether he should eat the (probably stale) plain biscuit in it. It would taste horrible, he was sure it had been there for the last two months. It had been part of a failed attempt from Second Lieutenant Havoc's side at bringing some sort of snack to the office. It had been during the week he'd been dating this self-proclaimed health expert. Apparently she had made them herself, and Havoc had absolutely adored her, going on about how "hot" she was, and how "they were going to be together forever". They had lasted eight days. Everyone in the office had been forced to try one of the biscuits, and Ed thought it was one of the most horrific things he'd ever eaten. He had learned a valuable lesson that day: _healthy _biscuits were a sin against nature.

He did not want to eat that _thing_, but he was so _hungry_.

"...so _little _concentration, Fullmetal."

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING SMALL!?" Ed snapped, returning to the present situation.

"No one. I am merely stating the fact that if you can't even keep your focus on such a _short _conversation, then I cannot in good conscience even trust you with this _small _matter," Colonel Roy Mustang said to him from the other side of the desk, his chin resting in his hands.

Ed felt a sudden urge to strangle the smug man in front of him.

"I mean, you have such _little _experience with the military after all..."

_Crunch_

Ed had managed to break the right armrest on the chair he was sitting on, splintered wood still clutched in his automail hand.

Mustang's eyebrows rose slightly in surprise. "Fullmetal, would you kindly repair the chair? Otherwise you will be forced to sit on the floor for the rest of the year."

Ed stood up, quickly gathering up the many splinters of wood and putting them on the seat. He clapped his hands, brought them to the chair and in a flash of blue lightning, it was good as new.

He sat down on it, putting his right leg on his left knee, leaning back in the chair with his arms crossed. "Happy, bastard?"

"You're really sticking with that nickname, are you? ... Well, I'm not surprised that you're acting so childish, you did just turn thirteen. It's only to be expected from such a _small _kid..."

"CALL ME SMALL ONE MORE TIME AND I'LL-"

"You'll do what, Fullmetal?"

"Please, Sir, just get on with explaining the mission." First Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye said, picking up her gun in a silent warning.

The two alchemists immediately cooled down. Ed had only been a part of the military for four months, but he already knew not to cross Lieutenant Hawkeye.

"Yes... As I said earlier, Fullmetal, we are currently investigating this school... There has been a recent string of murders, all of them children from said school... We want you to pose as a new student and investigate the matter."

"Is Al coming with me?"

"No, he is too conspicuous. A suit of armour would draw too much attention. He will have to stay behind here."

"Where's this school?"

"It's in a city about two hours from here called Amsel. The school itself is called Amsel Academy."

"How original."

"That may be, but we still need to investigate.

"But why aren't the police handling this? What do they need a State Alchemist for?"

"All the victims were found with an array carved into the skin on their backs. According to the coroner, they were tortured before the array was activated. It appears that it was used to bleed the victims completely dry of blood."

"What?! Like, no blood left in the bodies at all?"

"None."

"How is that even possible?!"

"We don't know, but apparently the killer isn't done. In the last two months they've already killed seven children, three boys and four girls, ages ranging from ten to sixteen."

"That's sick."

"We'll be infiltrating the local community and try to catch the culprit before they can kill any more children."

""We"?"

"Yes, Fullmetal, _we. _I'll be posing as your uncle and guardian, with Hawkeye as my girlfriend."

Hawkeye rolled her eyes at the slight smile that crept over the Colonel's mouth as he said the last word.

"Your name will be Edward Carlson, I'll be Robert Carlson, and Hawkeye will be known as Elizabeth Smith."

"So you're "Uncle Bob"?"

"I guess so," Mustang said with a sigh.

Ed started laughing. The thought of the Colonel being a "Bob" was priceless.

"How about Bobby?"

"Don't push it, Fullmetal..."

Hawkeye was even smiling slightly, Ed was having trouble breathing, he was laughing so hard.

"Come on now, _Bob_, I'm just getting into character!"

Mustang breathed deeply, calming himself. "Anyway, If anyone asks, we recently moved from East City after your parents died in a car crash a year ago, which will also be how you lost your limbs."

"...And dear old _Unkie Bobby _took me in, right?" Ed's eyes were glinting with mirth.

"Fullmetal I will not-!"

"**Oh, **_**how **_can you be so mean to your only _**nephew**_! Auntie Elizabeth, please stop him!" Ed fake-wailed.

It was so wrong to use those names, but it was _so _worth it to see the Colonel's reaction. He looked anguished beyond belief. Hawkeye was actually fully smiling, not just slightly lifting a corner of her lips. If this was how it was going to be for the next few weeks, then he was going to enjoy torturing the man as much as possible.

"Here, Edward," Hawkeye said, handing him a folder. "Here's the information on the school and the case itself."

Ed flipped the folder open. Apparently it was a private school that accepted children from ages six to sixteen. Instead of the usual way of doing things, the students were pretty much self-taught, although there were five teachers per classroom in order to guide and help the students. The students received a plan at the beginning of the week for what they were supposed to learn, so they were free to either have several subjects on each day, or use the whole day to study a particular subject. They received tests after so-and-so many weeks. This way the teachers had a good overview of the students' progress. There were between fifteen and twenty students per class, and there were one classroom per year. There were ten classrooms in total. They also had an obligatory "library-hour" twice a week, as well as a mandatory double Physical Education lesson once a week.

All in all, it didn't look too bad.

He moved on to the reports on the victims. The children were indeed tortured, they all had cuts and bruises, some had been whipped, many had broken fingers and/or toes, _all of them_ had blonde hair.

"You want me to be bait," Ed said.

"Yes. But we would of course like to find the killer before they become a threat to you." Mustang said. "If you should feel that there is a threat to your life, you are allowed to use your alchemy as you see fit, but only then. We don't want you to blow the mission. Havoc will be joining as well, posing as a janitor at the school, so if you find yourself in trouble, you should go to him."

"And what will you be doing?"

"I have apparently inherited a large sum of money from my sister, your mother, as have you, which is why I will not need to work. Hawkeye will be staying at home with me."

"And how come my mother had so much money?"

"Your paternal grandfather won the lottery and invested it well."

"Great, so you're mooching off of my dead parents?"

"Supposedly, yes."

"What will Havoc's name be?"

"James Harrison."

"Why is everyone's first name changed except mine?"

"Because this is your first time undercover, and as you will probably be the one to converse the most, we figured that it was such a common name that it would be easier for you not to slip if you kept your name."

"So you don't trust me to keep up appearances?"

"We thought it would be better just to keep it simple."

"Whatever."

"We expect the mission to last between two and four weeks. Meet us here at 0800 hours on Monday."

"Monday? But that's just three days from now!"

"Would you rather increase the chances of another murder?"

"No."

"Good, you are dismissed."

Ed rose from his chair and went over to the door. As he was about to close it, he stopped with an evil smirk. "See ya later, Robbie-Boy!"

He closed the door and ran quick as he could, which was a good idea, seeing as how the office door exploded into flames and gunshots were then heard from inside the office.

* * *

When he got back to the military hotel him and Al were staying at, he found the room empty. Al had been talking about going to the library, so Ed figured he'd be back in a few hours. Seeing as how he didn't have a younger brother present to feel bad about eating cake in front of, Ed ordered some room service. When the food came, he was glad he hadn't eaten the biscuit from Hell.

He wasn't looking forwards to this mission at all. Not only was he stuck with that bastard Colonel, he was stuck with him without Al. He hadn't been away from his brother for that long before, and he didn't like it. This could also mean that Al would be stuck without his body a month longer than necessary.

But after seeing the way those kids had been tortured, he knew he would have to help.

He sighed.

He knew he'd have to go on missions and possibly be separated from his brother when he joined the military, but possibly for a month? He was going to be lonelier than he had ever been. He guessed Al could go to Resembool and see Granny and Winry again.

One thing was sure, if he was going to be stuck with that bastard Colonel's smug face for that long, he was gonna give him hell. Or as much hell as possible without him risking being shot by Hawkeye.

The room service came, and Ed ate a lot of pasta and then cake.

With renewed hope, due to a full stomach, Ed looked through the folder again. It was eerie how the dead children were so incredibly pale, they truly had no blood left in their bodies. _Why the hell would anyone use alchemy to do this to kids?!_

There was some information about the staff of the school as well. He would apparently have a total of ten different teachers, seven of them female, three of them male. The women smiled in their pictures, as did two of the males, the last one, a Mr. Charles Miller, looked out of the picture as though he would have liked nothing more than to strangle the photographer. He looked rather skinny, was in his mid-thirties, black hair and prominent cheekbones. He had a bit of stubble, and his grey eyes were narrowed with dislike. He did not look very pleasant. Apparently he was an expert in mathematics and chemistry, so Ed guessed he'd have a lot to do with him.

The ten teachers´ days of work were split in two, five of them working Monday through Wednesday, the next Thursday through Friday.

The headmistress was named Penelope Waters, and was a small lady in her forties with long black hair and a fake smile. She had the same glint in her eye as Hawkeye, and Ed knew immediately that he wouldn't like to cross her.

He was slightly worried by the fact that they were supposed to have PE, not because he was afraid that he wouldn't be up to scratch, he was most likely in better physical shape than most of his classmates put together. No, it was just that he couldn't see how he'd be able to hide his automail. He guessed he could hide his leg if he didn't wear shorts, but he would either have to wear a T-shirt or a tank top which meant his arm would be fully exposed. PE lessons were the only ones where two classes would be having lessons together, which probably meant that the whole school would know about his arm before long.

It was only for a month, he would be able to cope with that. If he could go through automail surgery, he could damn well go through a few PE lessons with some gawking brats.

* * *

**So that's chapter one. I'll be posting the first four chapters in one go, and then I'll probably be able to update quite often, most likely at least once or twice a week.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist**

* * *

**Chapter Two**

Al had been disappointed with having to stay away from Ed for such a long time, but had brightened up a bit at the thought of seeing Winry and Granny again. Al had of course been worried when Ed had told him that he'd be working as bait for a serial killer, but Ed had convinced him with talking about his mad alchemy skills and how if he could survive Teacher, he could survive anyone.

And so the fateful day had come. He said goodbye to Al at the office door, told him he'd try to call as often as possible, and bumped his fist.

Ed kicked open the door in his usual fashion, and was surprised as he saw the two officers inside the office. That was when Ed realised he had never seen or even imagined the pair of them ever wearing something else than the blue military uniform. Mustang was wearing a pair of black trousers and a knitted green sweater on top of a white shirt. Hawkeye was wearing a knee-length beige skirt with a white T-shirt and a short black jacket. They looked so perfectly normal it was creepy. Hawkeye's hair was even hanging freely on her shoulders.

"Something wrong, Fullmetal?" Mustang inquired.

"You're wearing a _sweater_?"

"Yes, I am. That is a part of being undercover, not wearing a uniform. I see you did not take the initiative to wear other clothes yourself."

"Why should I? They're not a uniform and they look cool as hell."

"You can't use the coat with that symbol on your back. Someone may identify you as an alchemist."

Ed threw off his coat, put it on the floor, clapped his hands, brought them to the coat and the Flamel sign disappeared. Ed put his coat back on and glared at the Colonel. "Happy?"

"I guess it's as good as it can get from you."

Ed just grunted. "So, are we leaving or what, _Bobby_?"

Mustang instinctively held his fingers ready to snap, which would be pointless, as he wasn't wearing his ignition gloves.

"Sir, if you would please just go to the car," Hawkeye said.

Ed picked up his suitcase and followed the two of them. He threw his suitcase into the trunk where it joined Hawkeye and Mustang's. "Where's the rest of it? Shouldn't there be furniture and stuff if we're moving in?"

"What do you think we've been doing for the past two days, Fullmetal?"

"So how's the house?" he asked Hawkeye, ignoring Mustang's snide remark.

"It's a two story house of normal size. The bedrooms are upstairs, so is the bathroom. The living room and kitchen are downstairs."

"So we're rich, but not _that _rich?"

"We're good at saving," Mustang explained.

"Yeah, whatever." Ed sat himself down in the backseat. Mustang was driving.

"How about we practice using the new names, _Bobby_?" Ed said after about a minute of silence.

"That would actually be a good idea, Sir. We should use the names at home as well, which would make it easier not to slip up," Hawkeye said in a professional tone.

"Hawkeye, who's side are you on?" Mustang complained.

"Don't you mean _Elizabeth_?" Ed asked.

"I do not take sides, Rob, I am merely doing what is best for the mission."

"So you're going with "Rob"? That's so boring, don't you agree, Bobby?" Ed said.

"I swear Fullm-"

"Ah-ah-ah. _Edward_," he lectured.

Mustang's hands were twitching on the steering wheel.

Ed was grinning evilly.

"The house is a twenty minute drive from the school, so we'll be driving you to school in the mornings and pick you up in the afternoons," Hawkeye said, trying to defuse the situation. "We'll be going directly to the school and you'll receive a tour, after that, we're going home and you'll start your first day as a student tomorrow."

"Okay. What are you two going to do?"

"Rob here has about two weeks´ worth of paperwork that he's going to do, and then we'll pick up the rest in East City when he's done with that."

Ed smirked. So that was why they didn't have jobs.

"Where will Havoc be staying?"

"He's rented an apartment at the other edge of town. He's been in the school for a week already so as to avoid suspicion," Mustang told him.

"Uh-huh."

They drove mostly in silence for the rest of the way until they came upon a large brick building. Penelope Waters was standing at the door, smiling at them. They went over to her. "Ah, you must be Mr. Carlson and Miss Smith. And this here must be Edward." She shook their hands. "We are always happy to receive new students." She stood back to let them through the doors. "If you would follow me to my office, we have a few papers that you need to sign."

"Of course," Mustang said.

Ed was sceptic of the woman, her smile didn't quite reach her eyes. He didn't think she didn't want any new students, she just didn't seem to like people in general.

They followed her down a few halls, until they reached a door with a medium sized sign.

_**Penelope Waters**_

_**Headmistress**_

They followed her through the door, and Ed found himself sitting between Hawkeye and Mustang while facing the headmistress at the other side of the desk.

"Now, Edward, we need you and your uncle to sign these forms before you can receive any textbooks. It's just a precaution, by signing this you say that you take full responsibility for any school supplies you borrow, and that if you break any of it, you will replace the items."

Ed signed the sheet, as did Mustang.

"Also, although we don't have a school uniform, we do have a dress code. We expect our students to wear white shirts and black trousers, so you may wear the pair that you have now, but you will have to replace your shirt and jacket. The gloves are also not allowed."

Ed felt his heart sink. He didn't really want to leave his automail exposed more than necessary.

"Uhm, would you be able to make an exception? You see, Edward here had an accident last year and..." Mustang said uncomfortably.

Ed removed the right glove.

Miss Waters' eyebrows shot up. "Ah, I see. Was that in the car crash?"

"Yes."

"Well, I'm sure that we can make an exception to the no-gloves rule, then. Will it still be alright with you with the PE lessons? You could use the extra teacher's shower afterwards if you'd like."

Ed was slightly surprised by the willingness to help, but of course this woman would have plenty experience with how cruel kids could be. "Yes, that sounds very good, thank you."

"Of course. We had another student with an automail leg a few years ago. He had the same arrangement. I'll let Mr. Clarke know, so he'll show you where to go when you have his subject."

"Great, thanks." Ed was relieved. Now nobody would know about his leg as well.

"Now, if you would take the time to take these back home with you..." she held out a small stack of papers. "These are placement tests. That way we can make sure that the lessons will be at the correct level for you. It would be very good if you would finish these today, so that they can be given to your teachers as soon as possible.

Hawkeye accepted them and slid them into the bag on her lap.

"Now, I'll just show you where your classrooms are, and then we'll have finished our introductions."

The lady showed them the two different classrooms he'd be using, as well as the small gymnasium and the library.

Afterwards they said goodbye and thanked her for her time. They went back to the car, and twenty minutes later they were standing in the driveway of a brown house. Ed carried his suitcase to the front steps, as did Hawkeye and Mustang as Mustang pulled out a set of keys and unlocked the door.

"Well, I'll start preparing lunch," Hawkeye announced.

"Edward, your room is upstairs, first door to the left," Mustang told him.

Ed went to said room and was happy to see that the walls were painted red. The room wasn't particularly big, but not too small either. He had a regular bed, a desk with a chair, two bookshelves and a comfy chair next to a table with a little lamp for reading. All in all, it didn't look too bad.

He went over to one of the bookshelves, and his heart sank in his chest. They were all fiction books for boys his age, he recognised some of the titles from when unknowing librarians were trying to help him. He picked up the thickest volume he could find, he guessed it was about seven hundred pages long, and discovered something. The book had tiny transmutation marks on the cover. He flipped it open, and saw that it was in fact, not fiction at all, but an advanced alchemy tome. He looked at the other books; when he studied them close, he discovered that they all had minuscule transmutation marks along the spines. He looked at them all, none of them were fiction. Even better, most of these he hadn't even read before.

"I see you found your bookshelves."

Ed turned around, Mustang was standing in the doorway.

"_You _did this?"

"I am an alchemist after all, it wasn't that hard. It was Haw-Elizabeth's idea. I transmuted the covers of some of the books I have in my library at home. Figured you'd be crawling the walls if all you had was your school books."

"Wow... Uhm... thanks, I guess."

Mustang just nodded. "Lunch will be ready in two minutes, so Elizabeth told me to tell you to wash your hands and come downstairs afterwards."

"Oh, okay."

Ed put the books back into the shelf, then went for the bathroom and washed his hands. It was a bit unnecessary seeing as how he'd been wearing his gloves ever since he last washed his hands. But you do not disobey Hawkeye. _Especially_ if you're going to live in the same house as her.

He came down the stairs and sat down at the kitchen table, joining Mustang. Hawkeye had made a large omelette, and placed the frying pan on the table before them. She sat down and Ed and Mustang grabbed a few slices of bread, which they then placed pieces of the omelette on top of. It was actually rather good.

"So Edward, you'll be taking those tests after we eat?" Hawkeye asked.

"Guess so."

"And then we'll have to go clothes shopping."

"What do you mean?"

"I saw your look, you don't have white shirts with you."

"Fine," Ed grumbled.

"So, Ed, what do you think of the school?" Mustang asked between mouthfuls.

"Seems okay I guess. A bit weird."


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist**

* * *

**Chapter Four**

Clothes shopping with Hawkeye was a weird thought for him. Clothes shopping with her _and _the Colonel was just scary. There was nothing natural about this. Nothing at all. Walking in front of them through the several shelves of clothing and millions of coat hangers, trying to distract himself from the wrongness of the situation, he felt absolutely lost. _Damn Colonel putting me in this situation. What's wrong with my regular clothes?!_

He angrily started flicking through the white shirts as soon as he found them.

"You'll want one that isn't too thin, so these are no good," Mustang said knowingly behind him.

"So now you're an expert on shirts?"

"No, but I do know that if you want to avoid your entire automail arm showing through the fabric, you should pick something else than this."

"Then what do you suggest?!"

"Something more like this, but you should try them on all the same." He held out a few shirts from another shelf.

Ed took them from him and Mustang continued browsing. "These might be even better." He handed another shirt to him. Three minutes later, Ed was standing inside a changing room with three more or less identical white shirts. He took one on, but knew immediately that it was too thin, judging by the grey shadow that could be seen throughout the entire right arm and shoulder. Ed couldn't really decide between the other two, though. They were both thick enough to hide the automail, but the buttoning and the pockets were slightly different. Ed honestly didn't know which was better. They were generally just boring to him. He changed back to his usual tank top and jacket, and held the two items up in front of him as he walked out of the changing rooms. An unfamiliar voice spoke to him, and he lowered his arms.

"You need any help?"

The person who was talking to him didn't work there, and he couldn't see Mustang or Hawkeye anywhere. He hated himself for thinking it, but the shelves were just too tall for him to look over.

"No, I'm good."

"You sure? Your parents told me to help you and then to take you back home." The man was looking pretty normal, in his forties, a bit extra in the belly-department, chequered shirt and greying dark brown hair.

_Did I really just run into our murderer in the middle of a shopping trip? Nah, his eyes don't belong to a killer. This is only a freaking pervert. Just my luck._

"My parents are dead, so I highly doubt that..."

There was an impatient flicker in the man's eyes. "Then why don't you just come with me? We can have some cake."

"How stupid do you think I am?"

The man moved forward to grab his wrist, but he never even got a chance. Ed deftly grabbed the man's outstretched arm and swung him to the ground. It knocked the wind out of him, and Ed put his automail foot on his chest, keeping him from moving.

"Hey, is everything okay, I heard a noise and... Uhm, Edward?" Mustang had come back.

"Hi, Uncle Bob. This perv just tried to grab me after offering me cake."

"N-n-no! It's just a little misunderstanding, that's all... Just a joke!" the man said.

"So you telling me that my parents wanted you to take me home was a joke too?" Ed stomped his foot down harder.

"Y-yes! Just a joke! A dare from one of my friends, that's all!"

"That's funny, because I don't really see anyone else here but us..." Mustang said coldly.

"What's going on here?" Hawkeye had joined them.

"Ah, Elizabeth, perfect timing. Please tell the clerk to phone the police, this man was going to take Edward home, and I don't really think we should let people like that walk around freely on the streets."

Hawkeye disappeared, and Mustang moved over to Edward's side, kneeling down in front of him and pressing his knee hard down on the man's chest.

Ed removed his foot.

"Come on now. Like I would ever do something like that to him," the man said.

"Like hell you would, you tried to grab me!" Ed said. Did this man think they were idiots?

"What would I want with a brat like you? You're just a stupid little kid!" the man tried instead, although he didn't sound convincing at all.

Ed however, had only noticed his use of the word "little" and suddenly Mustang found himself not only restraining the man on the floor, but also keeping Ed from killing him.

"The police will be here in ten minutes," Hawkeye said as she returned.

"Good, will you please take Edward to buy his shirts, I'll wait here with this guy till the police arrive."

"Okay. Come now, Edward, did you decide upon your shirts?"

"Actually I couldn't decide between these two." Ed held them up in front of her.

"I think that one suits you better, let's go and grab another two."

Ed and Hawkeye left the man behind with Mustang just as the man weakly said "Just who the hell are you people?"

* * *

"You truly are a magnet for trouble, aren't you, Ed?" Roy said as they ate their dinner. They had found a Xingese restaurant and Ed seemed to be enjoying the food very much.

"It's not my fault! Where did you two go anyway?"

"We were looking at some other shirts if the ones you brought with you didn't do the trick," Hawkeye said.

"What did you tell the police, anyway? Shouldn't I give my account of events or something?"

"The police are informed of our investigation, so even if we can't actually put him in prison, he'll at least be held under suspicion of murder because of his _preferences_," Roy told him.

"So someone like him could just walk free?!"

"I don't think he'll try anything again, we gave him a real fright. Also, he'll be on the police radar from now on, so that's a start." What neither Hawkeye nor Fullmetal knew, was that Roy had also given the man a black eye for even thinking of hurting one of his subordinates.

He had been pissed off by the fact that somebody had tried to do whatever to Fullmetal, tried snatching him straight from under their noses in broad daylight. What Edward thankfully hadn't been there to hear, was when the man had cracked. He had told him some rather disturbing things about what he had thought when he saw Fullmetal, which was when Roy had suddenly curled his fist and brought it to the sick man's face. The kid was _thirteen _god damnit. Roy was damn well gonna testify in court if someone tried to put that man back on the streets.

Roy didn't know if he'd even tell his Lieutenant about that. He didn't seem like their murderer, though, just a sick pervert, and none of the victims had been sexually assaulted. It was probably lucky that they had been the one to find him. Still, he was always slightly unnerved by the fact that society kept on producing people like that.

He took a deep breath and decided to let it lie and strike up a new conversation. "So, Ed, how did those placement tests go?" Roy asked.

"What do you think, I'm not a prodigy for nothing, you know. I finished the mathematics tests in ten minutes, despite it saying ninety, sciences took a bit longer, but that was because I had to write sufficient answers, all in all, I think I'll set a school record."

"You know, you really should work on being a bit more humble."

"Nah, not when they give me maths for twelve-year-olds."

"I can see how you think that that is beneath you, but it has to be done. I'm sure they'll find something for you to spend your time with."

"You know, Bob, that's unusually optimistic of you?"

"Maybe you're just being more pessimistic."

"Bastard."

"Shrimp."

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING SHRIMP!"

"Please, Rob, Edward, calm down, people are staring," Hawkeye said, putting a placating hand on Roy's arm.

The two alchemists grumbled.

They finished dinner in relative silence, not really having anything new to talk about. _These are going to be a few long weeks_, he thought to himself as he slid under the covers of his bed at eleven o'clock that night. He was tired from constantly driving to and from East City more times than he'd care to admit the last three days in order to have everything ready. Hawkeye was lying in the bed on the other side of the room. They might share a room to keep up appearances, but there was no way they were going to lie in the same bed. None of them had even thought about suggesting it. This was a mission and nothing more.

Roy always had a hard time adjusting to a new bed. He twisted and turned until he found a position that he would be able to sleep in. He had only slept for about an hour when he woke from a series of shouts from the neighbouring room. The alarm clock on his nightstand said it was a quarter past one in the morning. He was instantly alert, though. As was Hawkeye. Roy picked up his ignition gloves, and was about to put them on, when the shouts transformed into words.

"AL! ALPHONSE! NO! MOM! HELP! SOMEBODY! MOM! NO...THIS WASN'T- GIVE HIM BACK!"

Roy left the ignition gloves behind on the nightstand. The kid was having nightmares, nightmares about that night the transmutation had gone wrong. It wasn't really his business, but at the same time, he couldn't leave Fullmetal lying there trapped in the hell of his own memories. Roy went over to the other bedroom, Hawkeye was tactfully staying behind. It would be bad enough for Fullmetal being woken by one of them, let alone both. He opened the bedroom door, the boy was still twisting and turning in his sleep, clutching the stump of his leg.

"GIVE HIM BACK! TAKE MY ARM, BOTH, ANYTHING!"

Roy really had no experience in how to do this. Of course, he'd had to wake many a soldier from nightmares back in Ishbal, but this was different. This was a kid.

He went over to him, gripping his shoulders. "Hey! Ed! Listen! Your brother's fine! Al is alive!" These were the only words of comfort he could offer the kid, he couldn't deny that they had created that monster, nor that Ed's limbs were gone. But Alphonse was still alive, and that was the most important thing to the kid.

Roy kept gripping his arms, noticing the cold sweat coming from the small body, the sheets that had been thrown around and to the floor. The kid was freezing cold, and having two metal limbs weren't helping him either. "Al is alive!" He kept telling him that single fact, and suddenly Ed's hands shot forward, gripping Roy's arms. His eyes flew open. "I, uh, Al...?"

"Listen, Edward, you had a nightmare. Al's not gone." Roy sighed.

"Colonel?" Ed was still confused. "Why are you in my room, where's Al?"

"We're on a mission, remember?"

"Right, mission." He seemed to realise he was still gripping Roy's arms. He released them quickly. Roy personally didn't think there was anything to be embarrassed about. He had just turned thirteen. Roy still had nightmares about Ishbal, and he was _twenty-seven_. Fullmetal was reliving the most terrifying moments of his life. Roy would of course have teased him endlessly if it was about something stupid, like being chased by a bear-dinosaur chimera for instance. But after seeing what had been left in that room after the transmutation had failed, the blood, most of it from an eleven-year-old… the smell of decay. No, he didn't feel like laughing at all...

"You okay?" _Of course he's not, Roy!_

"Yeah, I just... like you said, nightmare."

"Fullmetal, you're shivering."

Ed quickly picked up the sheets that lay on the floor. He put them around his shoulders, still shivering though.

Hawkeye entered the room. "Here, Edward, I brought you some cocoa." She handed a mug to each of them before she left the room.

The boy was looking a mixture of embarrassed, furious and shaken. It had obviously been a really bad one. Roy sipped his cocoa, as did Fullmetal. He seemed to regain some of his usual fierce composure.

Roy had a sudden realisation, being on this mission, didn't just mean him going undercover, it also meant him (unwillingly) being this kid's uncle. And it terrified him slightly. He was Fullmetal's commanding officer, that was what he had been prepared for. But now he would be looking after him for at least two weeks. He was supposed to care for him not as a subordinate, but as a nephew.

_Shit._


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist**

* * *

**Chapter Four**

Ed had some serious trouble with looking at his commanding officer next morning. It was bad enough having those nightmares, but being woken from them by the bastard Colonel himself? He must look like a snivelling kid.

He had dragged his feet down the stairs and into the kitchen after finishing in the shower. He was wearing one of his new white shirts and it felt odd. He felt so _professional_.

He plumped into his chair facing Mustang who was looking over his newspaper at him.

"Ah, Edward, finally. Thought you might have drowned in the shower, you were taking so long."

_No mentions of last night, that's good I guess._

"I have to be careful with drying off my automail, otherwise it'll rust."

Mustang froze for half a second, was that shame he had on his face?

They spent most of the breakfast in silence, as well as the drive to the school. Ed went up the front steps of the school and found the classroom that Miss Waters had shown him yesterday. He opened the door and was met by six curious pairs of eyes.

"Who are you?" a girl with waist length brown hair queried.

"Edward Carlson, I'm a new student."

"Ah, well I'm Catherine." She stood up from her desk and went over to him and shook his hand. She pointed towards a skinny boy with short blonde hair. "That's Nick. And that's Steve," she pointed towards a redheaded boy who kind of looked like a muscular young Second Lieutenant Breda. "That over there is Elaine," Ed followed her finger over to a girl with shoulder length black hair with a fringe that covered her eyebrows. "And these two are Fred and Conrad." She pointed towards a couple of boys with identical dark brown hair who had to be twins.

"Well, I guess we've solved the mystery of the extra desk, then," Catherine told him, smiling. "It's that one over there." She pointed towards a desk by the window. She followed Ed over to it and sat down on his desk as he took his chair. "So, Eddie, have you heard about the murders?"

"It's Ed, not Eddie. And no." Ed figured it would be smart to let his fellow students tell him, rather than him lecturing them. The rest of the students had swarmed about his desk.

"They say he's killed seven students already. None from our class, but it's only a question of time. You better watch yourself."

"He? Why do you say it's a he?"

"Because that's usually how it works, isn't it?"

"I don't know about that, my Mum can be pretty scary when she wants to..." Nick said in barely more than a whisper.

"You know, Nick, that's a fair point. Remember that time I accidentally knocked you into that bicycle, and you broke your nose? Your Ma came storming over to my house and scared the crap out of me and Pops, and he's nearly seven feet tall!" Catherine said, then gave a little shiver. She turned back to Ed. "But anyways, we're surprised you'd pick this school, with all this going on. I'd have thought they'd be bound to tell your parents or something when you enrolled. Or maybe they told'em but didn't tell you so that they wouldn't scare you." She didn't let Ed answer before she ploughed on. "Speaking of your parents, how are they, did you guys move here recently or have you just changed school? What do they do for a living?"

"They're dead," Ed said, hoping to stop her from digging further, he would rather they'd keep discussing the murders.

"Oh! Sorry! So who do you live with then?"

"My uncle and his girlfriend."

"How long have you been staying with'em?"

"Little over a year. My parents died in a car crash."

"Oh! We're you there when it happened? Any hideous scars or something?" She eyed his gloved hands expectantly.

"Catherine, knock it off, that's not something you ask someone right after you've met them!" Steve said, giving her a smack in the back of her head. "Sorry 'bout your parents, that's rough man."

Ed just nodded.

The classroom door opened again. A couple of giggling girls walked inn. "That's Michaela and Ellie, they've known each other since they were three."

During the course of the next five minutes, every one of the twenty students had entered the classroom and sat at their respective desks. Catherine had kept a running commentary on who was who, and Ed felt pretty sure he knew all their names by now. Then the teachers came, and each and every one of them came over to Ed and shook his hand. He gave the teachers the placement tests according to their subjects, and they smiled at him and told him that if he would just wait for half an hour, they would look through them and find the best suited text books. He would be free to talk to the other students if he wanted to in the meantime.

Everyone was sitting in groups or pairs working side by side. The teachers were seated at their desks in the front. Ed saw a boy he was pretty sure was called Tony was working alone, and Ed went over to say hello. The kid was about the same size as Ed and had light brown hair. He was skinny and nobody in the class seemed to really pay him any mind. Ed held out his hand and cleared his throat. "Hi, I'm Ed. I'm the new student."

The kid looked up at him shyly. "Anthony," he said, taking Ed's hand.

"Nice to meet you. What subject are you working on?"

"Mathematics."

"You like that?"

"Yeah." He gave a little smile. "But I also like chemistry and the other kinds of science."

"Seems like we have something in common, then. Much better than that literature crap, right?"

He smiled again. "Yeah. I really want to be an alchemist actually. I've been working on it on my own, and I can do a few simple transmutations."

"That's great!"

"The others don't think so, they just call me a nerd and a freak..."

"Yeah, well screw them. Alchemy is much cooler than, I don't know, romance novels or whatever they're into."

"Mr. Carlson, a word?" Ed turned around and was met by the very stern face of Mr. Miller. Ed followed him to the back of the classroom. "Did you cheat on your test?"

"What, no!"

"Don't lie to me. There is no sign on these papers that you actually did anything but copy down the answers."

"I swear I did them, but just in my head, you know. They weren't that hard to begin with, so I just didn't feel the need to waste my time with writing down anything other than the answer."

"How long did you spend on this?"

"About ten minutes."

"You can see why I'm having trouble believing you?"

"Let me prove it."

"Fine."

* * *

Charles Miller had been rather surprised to see it when the new student had delivered out each and every one of the tests filled out. He seemed a bit like just another cocky brat that had cheated on the tests, and who would come running to be given an easier level one week after being delivered the textbooks. But when Charles had looked at the papers in front of him, and the carefree way every answer had been given on the test, no calculations, no nothing, he had been angry. Especially when the kid had just acted like he was innocent, like he thought he was so much cleverer than all of them. Oh yes, he would test him. He would teach the cocky brat his place. He gave him a ridiculously advanced test he usually gave the best 16-year-olds just to knock them off their peg. He placed it in the kid's hand, and Carlson swiftly went over to his desk, pulling out a pen. He looked at the page and actually gave a relieved sigh. Then he smiled and started filling in the answers, never touching the spare sheets of paper to calculate on. He turned the page around after just five minutes, looking hopeful. There was of course nothing there.

The kid had come over to him, handing him the sheet of now answered equations.

"Here, Mr. Miller."

Charles had looked down at the sheet, running his eyes over the answers and comparing them to the answer sheets. His jaw dropped. The boy was absolutely correct. He looked through his chemistry test. The answers were formulated in a highly academic fashion.

This arrogant little kid with the stupid plait, was a bloody genius.

* * *

Ed looked expectantly up at his teacher. He had been very pleased to be given something that was at least _nearing _being worth his time. The man was walking towards him, a stunned look on his face. "Mr. Carlson, if you would join me to my office so that we can find something that would suit you. I have a few books of university level that I use to scare my students with, but I don't think anything else would do in your case."

"Sounds good."

Ed followed the man to the teachers' lounge where in a corner, stood a shelf of thick books. Mr. Miller pulled out seven of these, handing some to Ed.

"This is extraordinary. Never have I had a student before with your level of academic achievement, and you're only thirteen?"

"Yes, Sir."

"How did you reach this level?"

"Books in my home, I guess."

"So you're saying that you're self-taught?"

"Yes."

Ed was surprised to see that the man was smiling. "If you would just follow me to the chemistry lab, I have a few more books for you there."

"Sure, great."

Ed returned to the classroom laden with books. He returned them to his desk and sat down. He opened the first one of the chemistry books, and was soon lost in its contents. He only looked up when someone touched his shoulder. Ed instinctively assumed his defensive mode, but stopped himself from hitting the person.

"Uhm, Ed... Would it be alright if I worked together with you? Everyone else is doing it, so..." It was Anthony.

"Sure. We can be nerds together."

The kid gave a gratified smile and sat down on the other side of the desk, dragging an empty chair over. "What did you say to Mr. Miller? I've never seen him smile before."

"He just recognised my academic level and handed me a stack of university books."

"What? You can do university grade tasks? I thought I was good, and I'm just doing the same things as the fifteen-year-olds."

"That's still really good, though."

"I guess, but..."

"But you know what this means, right?" Ed said, smiling.

"What?"

"You're no longer the freak."

Anthony smiled a bit at that.

* * *

Ed soon had a bunch of books from universities on his desk due to the fact that the other teachers had caught up on Mr. Miller's enthusiasm. The other students had noticed this, and Catherine, nosy as ever, came over to them. "What are all these?" she gestured towards the multitude of books.

"I'm the new freak," Ed told her.

She looked at him curiously. "What are these, I've never seen these before?"

"University grade textbooks."

"What!?"

"Just what I said."

The rumours quickly spread through the school about Ed during lunch. Although he didn't really like people whispering behind his back, he guessed it might make it easier to gain some information, judging by how he had suddenly become interesting to each and every year at the school. He spent the rest of the day with Anthony, and guessed the school day could have gone a lot worse.

He waved Anthony off as he walked home. Ed stood watching for the Colonel. Suddenly he saw a group of older boys laughing and going in the same direction as Anthony had gone. After a few minutes he heard a scream.

He instinctively ran in the direction of the noise, and turned into an alley to his left. Anthony was lying on the ground, left arm clearly broken, crying and pleading before a group of four fifteen-year-olds. Ed ran forwards, gripping one of them by the shoulders and throwing him on the ground. The four of them were obviously unusually coordinated and two of them grabbed Ed by his arms and threw him to the ground. Ed's forehead collided with a rock, and he instantly felt the blood start flowing from the left side of his forehead. He tried getting up, but his head was spinning, and next minute four pairs of legs were kicking him in his stomach and back. He couldn't move and his head was woozy. "You broke my nose! You fucker!" was the last thing he heard before he was surrounded by blackness.

* * *

Roy was stressed. There had been a car accident, so they had to take another way around, which meant they would surely be late to pick Fullmetal up from school. The kid was going to give him hell for it most likely. And for once, he couldn't blame him. Not when there was a serial killer around and he was the bait.

They reached the school ten minutes late, and he couldn't help but grow slightly worried when the boy wasn't anywhere to be seen.

"Should we check inside the school?" Hawkeye suggested.

Roy just opened the car door and strode towards the front steps. He stopped however, when he heard the sound of a boy screaming. "STOP IT! PLEASE!"

It wasn't Fullmetal, but judging from the scream, this was a child who needed their help all the same. He and Hawkeye strode forwards, turning down an alley, and froze at the scene in front of them. Fullmetal was on the ground, four older boys kicking him repeatedly, and a young boy with his left arm at an unnatural angle was screaming and crying.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Roy strode forwards, furious as hell. The four boys immediately scrambled, running away from them at a frankly impressive speed.

He went to Fullmetal, turning him over on his back to take a look at him. His face was bloodied, he had a cut on his right cheek and the left side of his forehead. He also had a bleeding nose and a split lip, as well as the beginnings of a black eye. "Hey! Ed, can you hear me?!"

There was no response. He checked his pulse, it was thankfully relatively steady.

"We need to take them to a hospital," Hawkeye said to his right. She had gone over to the boy with the broken arm and was supporting him so that he was shakily standing up, tears running down his face.

Roy lifted Edward's still form into his arms, noticing how much heavier he was than what he seemed from just looking, then he remembered the automail. _This kid doesn't have it easy..._

Hawkeye sat herself behind the steering wheel when they reached the car, the boy sitting beside her. Fullmetal's head was lying in Roy's lap. The kid kept sobbing. "I-I'm sorry! Ed just came to save me! I didn't want him to get hurt! Not because of me!"

"It's not your fault, Anthony, it was the other boys who attacked you that are to blame." Hawkeye was speaking kindly to the distraught boy. Roy was angry. Two attacks in two days, and none of them the killer. This was just unnecessary, and because of a stupid couple of kids. He was going to have a long talk with the headmistress once he knew that Fullmetal was going to be fine.

Once they got to the A&E, the boys quickly received treatment. Both of them were taken for X-rays, and a nurse was sent to call for Anthony's parents. Ed was revealed to have two cracked ribs, but that was also the worst of it. He would have many bruises on his chest, stomach and back, as well as the black eye. He also had a bandage around his head, and a couple of stitches for the cut on his cheek. He would have to stay in the hospital for observation for at least three days. Anthony's arm needed surgery, so at least the two boys would be able to keep each other company for the next few days.


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist**

* * *

**Chapter Five**

Roy was sitting in the chair before the hospital bed as Fullmetal gave a little grunt and slowly opened his eyes. Roy had stormed off the headmistress' office rather shortly after Edward had been admitted. It had not been a pleasant conversation for the woman. She had handed him an album with the pictures if this year's fifteen-year-olds. Roy had quickly pointed out the four students that had beaten up Fullmetal and Anthony Evans. The four of them would receive a two-week long expulsion, and afterwards be facing three months of detention. Roy didn't really think that that was enough, but they were still underage and couldn't be arrested. At least as long as they were undercover.

Fullmetal was blinking his eyes slowly. _Or eye, just the one, god, it's so bruised._

"Morning, Edward."

"W-What happened?" he said weakly.

"You got beaten up."

Ed suddenly sat up, obviously remembering the previous day's events. He cringed however as his ribs protested the movement.

"You've got two broken ribs, so you should just take it easy."

Ed gingerly sank back into the pillows. "How's Anthony?"

"Look to your right and you'll see for yourself."

Fullmetal turned his head, and his eyes obviously fell upon the kid in the bed next to him, because he started smiling.

"Hi, Ed," Anthony said.

"Hi, how's your arm?"

"Broken."

"Did they do anything else?"

"No."

"But they got away with it?"

"Yes."

"Actually they didn't," Roy said.

The two boys turned to him.

"What do you mean?" Fullmetal said.

"I went to the headmistress' office and identified them. They received a two-week expulsion and three months of detention."

"You identified them?"

"Yes. Your uncle came and stopped them after they knocked you out," Anthony said. He looked sadly down at his lap. "I thought they were gonna kill you. Why did you try to stop them?"

"Because I weren't gonna watch them beat you to a pulp. Nobody should be allowed to do that as you should know full well."

"I'm just not used to anyone standing up for me."

Roy felt sad for the kid. He didn't even seem surprised by the fact that these people had broken his arm and beaten Edward to a pulp. How much worse could he be used to?

The door was suddenly flung open and a distraught woman in her late thirties stormed into the room. "Oh, Honey! I'm so sorry I couldn't come here sooner, I was in the South-East and had to drive all night! Did they really break your arm?"

The lady was wearing a long pink coat on top of a yellow flowery dress. She had a beret on top of her head, and her hair was the same colour as her son's. She hugged him to her tightly, although careful of his left arm.

Anthony hugged his mother close, obviously glad to see her again.

"Mum, I'm alright! Ed's much worse off than me!"

""Ed?"" She looked at Fullmetal with a startled look upon her face.

"Yeah, he's a..." he looked uncertainly at Edward, obviously afraid of saying something wrong.

"I'm his friend. Edward Carlson."

"Oh! Honey! You made a friend! I'm so glad!" She hugged her son once more. She then stood up and shook Fullmetal's hand. "I'm Rachel Evans, Anthony's mother. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Ed saved me from being beaten up even more."

"You did? Oh my dear boy, thank you! But what happened to you?" She looked at him with a worried face, only then taking in the bandages, the stitches and the black eye.

"I threw one of them to the ground and I guess it sort of broke his nose and he got pissed at me so they started kicking me."

"Oh! But that's horrible, dear!"

"But his uncle got there in time, so the boys responsible will be punished," Anthony supplied.

"So you're his uncle?" she turned to Roy.

"Yes."

"Well, thank you so much for helping my boy. Please let me invite you for dinner! Is there a Mrs. Carlson too?"

"No, but my girlfriend is also living with us."

"Well then, you must bring her along! How about this Saturday? Unless your nephew has to stay here longer?"

"Saturday should be fine, Edward will be released on Friday."

"Lovely! Oh! I forgot to ask you your name!"

"It's Robert Carlson."

"Well, I am very pleased to meet you." She shook his hand. This was a woman who seemed nice enough, if not a bit over the top with her being slightly over-emotional. Roy figured that it wouldn't be such a bad idea to get an overview of the local community from an insider, and it would help their cover. _Hell, maybe we'll actually enjoy ourselves too? Plus it would give me an excuse not to spend my day doing paperwork..._

* * *

Edward watched as the Colonel left the hospital room together with Mrs. Evans, who had profusely insisted that she would treat him to a cup of coffee in the hospital cafeteria. Ed was then left with Anthony. Which was when Ed realised that the hospital shirt he was wearing left his right arm fully exposed. What surprised Ed was the fact that neither Anthony nor his mother had commented on it.

"You're not wondering about my automail?"

"My Dad got an automail leg after the war in Ishbal. Your uncle said you got it after the car crash. I figured that nothing more needed to be said."

"Where's your father now?"

"Dead. Cancer. It was two years ago."

"I'm sorry."

"Sorry about your parents too."

"Thanks." Ed couldn't help but think about his own mother.

"I'm sorry if my Mum is a bit over the top. It's only been her and me for a while now and I guess she's just so happy that I've finally made a friend."

"Not to worry, I know a man who's twenty times worse, _and_ he's a hugger." Ed's thoughts were immediately directed towards Major Armstrong. That man needed some very strong pills, or at least

A sparkle-depressant.

"That sounds scary."

"He's also seven feet tall and muscular."

"How are you even alive?" Anthony suddenly smiled, and then he started laughing. Ed joined in, although his ribs were protesting the movement to the best of their abilities.

"Hey, Ed? Thanks for helping me yesterday. They're usually not that bad... Maybe they just don't like to see me happy? I mean, I don't usually smile that much..."

Ed felt a new wave of anger surge through him. When he was done with this mission, he was going to let the whole school know that the Fullmetal Alchemist himself was looking out for this boy. Maybe he could threaten them with one of his trademark spears? He wondered how much trouble those kids were going to be in for attacking a State Alchemist. They'd probably be sent to juvenile hall. They weren't going to get off cheap, that's for sure.

Ed groaned inwardly though. He got sent to the hospital by a few kids. What would the others in the office think of him? _If it only hadn't been for that fucking rock_. It was just bad luck that it had been there, otherwise he wouldn't have lost consciousness and then he would have beaten _them_ to a pulp instead.

"Ed? D'you mind if I ask why you got automail? I know it's practical, but you're still a kid."

Ed sighed. Anthony wasn't going to treat him any differently if he knew he had two automail limbs. "Because I lost my left leg too. Didn't want to be stuck in a wheelchair."

Anthony's eyes widened in understanding. Then he became perplexed. "B-but you only lost them last year, didn't you?"

"Yeah."

"Wow, that must have hurt like hell. I mean Dad spent about two and a half years before he could move properly around. That's incredible."

"Yeah, it hurt, but I got through it and it's much better than being helpless you know."

"I guess you're right."

* * *

Roy was in hell. _Will this woman ever shut up? Or at least breathe?_

Mrs. Evans was talking a mile a minute, and she never seemed to get done with talking about her son and how glad she was that he had found himself a friend.

"But what about you, have long have you been looking after your nephew?"

"About one-and-a-half years, ever since his parents died in that accident."

"So you're still quite new to the world of parenting then?"

_You have no idea._

"Yes."

"But it must at least help having a girlfriend though, how long have you two been together?"

"Four years."

"How nice! How does she and Edward get along?"

"Very well, they are quite close."

"That's good to hear, he seems like a nice boy."

_How do you know, you haven't even talked to each other for a whole minute?!_

"He is."

"And to think my little Anthony made himself a friend in just **one **day! Do you know how they started talking?"

"Your son said something about having a mutual interest in mathematics and sciences."

"Oh! How lovely! You know, Anthony hasn't had anyone to talk about stuff like that with ever since my husband died. He has always been like that, does the same kind of studies as the fifteen-year-olds. I'm so proud of him. Do you know where they placed your Edward?"

Roy felt his stomach clench a little at that last remark. _His_ Edward?

He cleared his throat slightly uncomfortably. "According to Anthony, the teachers actually found him university textbooks."

"So your nephew is quite the genius! No wonder they get along so well. You must be so proud of him!"

"Yes... I'm very proud."

_God, if you're up there, please let this end soon..._

* * *

As soon as Mustang entered the room, Ed looked up at him. "Hey! Uncle Bobby? Have you got a pen or something?"

The Colonel looked surprised. "Why?"

"I need something to sign Anthony's cast with."

"Oh." He picked up a pen from his pocket and handed it to him. Ed took the pen and moved to sit up and get out of the bed, but he stopped halfway as his ribs screamed out in protest. He gave a pained gasp. Mustang came over to his side and pushed him gently back down into his pillows. "Don't be stupid, Ed. Your ribs are _broken_."

"Yeah, but..."

"No buts. Lie still."

_Funny, he's really selling that whole "concerned uncle" thing._

Anthony came over to his bed instead, holding his left arm out for him to sign. Ed gripped the pen in his left hand and scribbled his fake name on the cast. He was going to sign it as Edward Elric as soon as they were done here.

Anthony smiled widely at him, looking at the signature. Ed was already feeling bad about leaving him behind as soon as the mission was done. Well, he could of course visit him and they could be pen pals. That actually sounded rather nice. He'd never had a pen pal before. Ed smiled back at him. _I think things will be a lot easier for you once people know that you're friends with one of the biggest names in the military..._

Mrs. Evans ran over to Ed and hugged him, crying. Ed didn't know what to do. A strange woman was hugging him and crying. Should he put his hand on her back? Pat her shoulder? Ask her to get off of him because his ribs were on fire?

He tried sending a look to Mustang asking him to save him, but his line of sight was blocked by the woman's bosom. Ed quickly closed his one open eye, although the woman's dress covered anything that was to see, it still felt weird.

"Thank you, dear boy! Thank you!" the woman sobbed.

"Mum! His ribs!"

She quickly released him, and Ed was thoroughly relieved. "Oh, I'm so sorry, dear!"

_I think Saturday's gonna be interesting..__._

* * *

Riza had been sitting in the car with her superior in silence after they had left Ed in the hospital for the night. He drove the car looking slightly disturbed by something.

"Is something wrong?" she said softly.

"Hmm? No... I think..." He sighed. "...Yes, Lieutenant."

Riza wasn't going to remind him right now of the aliases, not when he so clearly needed to talk as Roy Mustang to Riza Hawkeye

"What is it?"

"How the hell am I supposed to react to all this? I am not Fullmetal's father, and neither of us want me to be. At the same time I'm supposed to act like it. I have no experience with this sort of thing, and neither does he. I don't even know if I'm happy or not that he made a friend." He sighed and rubbed his forehead with his right hand, his left still on the steering wheel.

"You're doing fine, Sir. You two just need to get used to it, that's all. And when it comes to Edward making a friend, I think we can be pleased. He usually just makes enemies on his missions, and it's healthy for a thirteen-year-old to have friends his own age.

"Guess you're right. Thank you, Lieutenant."

"You're very welcome, Sir."


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist.**

**Also, I would just like to say thank you to everybody who's followed and favourited this story, it means a lot!**

* * *

**Chapter Six**

They reached Friday and Ed and Anthony were released from the hospital at the same time. The two boys waved goodbye to each other as Ed joined Mustang and Hawkeye in the car. His ribs were screaming but he tried to hide it. Judging from Hawkeye's concerned look, he failed in his task.

They made it back home, and as Ed was about to go to the living room, Mustang shot an arm out in front of him.

"What?!" he demanded.

"The doctor ordered you to rest, and that is what you're going to do."

"Oh, come on! I'm finally free from the hospital and all you do is order me straight back to bed?"

"Yes."

"Well I won't."

"Edward, go to bed," Hawkeye said dangerously.

"Yes."

Ed made sure to stomp his feet as loud as he could when he went up the stairs. He banged the door behind him and moved over to the bed. Hawkeye suddenly came in behind him, holding an extra couple of pillows.

"Thought it would be better if you were able to sit up slightly." She gave him a warm look. Hawkeye really wasn't the smiling type. Then she went over to the bed, fluffed the pillows, and made them into a triangle that would be much more pleasant for Ed to lean on.

"Uh... thanks."

"No problem. Now, if there's anything you need, just call for me or Rob and we'll be right there."

"Sure..."

_As if I would ask the bastard Colonel to help me._

Ed sat gingerly down on his bed before he brought his legs with him and grunted as his back hit the pillows. Hawkeye was watching him, obviously making sure that he was actually staying put.

"Do you want some books?"

"Yeah... the ones on the left are among the ones I haven't read yet, so if I could have about seven of them?"

Hawkeye did as he asked. "Here, Edward. You need anything else?"

"Nah, I'm good. Thanks."

He leaned back heavily into the pillows with a book in his hands and sighed. Because of those stupid kids he'd lost about a week's worth of investigating, although it had apparently been quite an achievement to break Max Olden's nose. This of course, also meant that if they didn't solve this case quickly, he'd soon have a pissed off group of teenagers just waiting to attack him. And as much as he hated to admit it, his ribs would probably slow him down enough to let him take a couple of hits.

_Freaking great._

* * *

Roy had sat himself down in the living room. He had asked Hawkeye to be the one to fix the pillows, as Fullmetal was more likely to hit Roy than to accept his help. He was an annoyingly stubborn brat when he wanted to be, and he obviously didn't like to seem vulnerable.

_That kid would probably come into the office with a bullet lodged in his stomach, instead of going to the hospital…_

How the hell was he supposed to make sure that a boy like that didn't actually get himself killed on the job?

Hawkeye entered the room.

"Ah, Elizabeth, how is Edward doing?"

"Very well. I got him settled in the bed with some books, so he should stay put for at least a few hours."

"That's good, then we won't have to worry about him for a while."

"Which means..." Hawkeye was standing in front of him and dumped a large stack of papers in his lap. "...You have time for this."

Roy groaned.

He picked up the papers and sat himself at the living room table. He sighed and set to work.

He had been working for over five hours, signing tedious form after tedious form. His eyelids were heavy, he was seeing double. This was incredibly dull work.

_Thunk. Thump. Thump-gadunk._

"What was that?" Roy lifted his head and looked at his Lieutenant.

"I think it came from Edward's room," Hawkeye said.

Roy got to his feet, much more alert than a few seconds ago. He walked swiftly up the stairs and knocked on Fullmetal's door.

"Yeah?" came a wheezing voice.

"Edward? What's going on?"

"Nothing." A couple of stifled groans.

"It doesn't sound like nothing. Listen, if you don't tell me what's wrong, I will open this door and check it myself."

"I swear I'm fine."

"That's it." Roy opened the door. The sight that met him was a surprising one. Ed was lying on the floor, covered in books with one of the bookshelves tipped over, pinning his chest. Luckily it wasn't a very big shelf or he'd have even more broken ribs. "What the hell happened?!" Roy had rushed forward, removing books from around the trapped alchemist.

"I was reaching for the top shelf and sort of had to lean on it when it tipped over me..."

"How do you always manage to find new ways to get yourself into trouble?" Roy sighed, reaching for the shelf. "Okay, Hawkeye, I need you to drag Fullmetal out when I lift this, okay?"

"Yes, Sir." She stepped forwards, gripping the boy under the armpits.

"Three... Two... One!" Roy lifted the shelf as Hawkeye pulled Fullmetal out. The shelf was heavier than it looked, no wonder the kid hadn't been able to get out. Roy let it fall to the floor once Fullmetal was clear. He was leaning on Hawkeye's chest, obviously in a great amount of pain and wheezing and coughing weakly.

"Why did you tell us to go?!" Roy demanded angrily.

Fullmetal blushed a bit, lowering his eyes. _God, how stubborn could this kid get? He could be lying there for hours. Is he really that concerned with keeping his pride?_

"Edward, that was very irresponsible of you. You could have been seriously hurt," Hawkeye scolded him.

"I'm sorry." He hung his head.

"Well, Edward, we need to have a look at your ribs. If one of them got moved or another one broke, you could risk life threatening damages to your inner organs."

The kid was wise enough not to oppose Hawkeye, and let her help him up. He was obviously in a lot of pain. He hissed through his teeth as he moved to remove his tank top, a pained grimace on his face. Roy moved forwards. "Just lift your arms, Fullmetal."

The kid growled at him.

"He's right, we just want to help," Hawkeye said.

He lifted his hands in the air slowly, teeth gritted. Roy carefully slid the tank top over his head. Fullmetal was soon standing there with all of his bruises fully exposed. There was barely a spot on either his back or his chest that wasn't blue or purple.

_Those brats are so going to be in trouble for this._

"Ed, I need to make sure that nothing else is broken, so this is probably going to hurt, okay?" Hawkeye told him.

The kid seemed to brace himself as he slowly spread his arms and nodded.

Hawkeye checked each and every one of his ribs as if she was used to doing this on a daily basis. Ed groaned a few times, especially when she reached the broken ribs. "Well, Good news, Ed, nothing else seems to be broken."

"Good."

"But you need to be careful. Have you taken your painkillers?"

Fullmetal's look told them everything they needed to know.

Hawkeye left the room and Roy helped him change into his pyjamas as it was ten o'clock and the kid was looking tired. Roy guessed he was already half asleep or he wouldn't have let him help pull the pyjama trousers up his legs. Roy had had broken ribs before and knew how painful it was to lean forward, so he was sort of glad on the kid's behalf that he was so tired that he actually accepted his help.

He pulled the covers over him when he lay down in his bed, which was when Hawkeye returned. She held out a glass of water and a couple of rather big white pills. "Swallow these, and if you wake up and are in pain, just knock on our bedroom door, as long as it's after three o'clock. You aren't allowed to take any more painkillers before that."

He nodded and swallowed his pills dutifully.

_Thank god for Riza Hawkeye._

* * *

Ed was woken by a coughing fit. Every single cough ravaged his chest, yet he couldn't stop coughing. The pain was extreme. He managed to stop coughing, but his ribs were still on fire. He tried falling back to sleep, but it was no use.

_Crap. I need those painkillers._

He looked at the alarm clock on his nightstand. It was three thirty. He slid himself gingerly off the bed, walking slowly over to the neighbouring bedroom. He took a deep breath and knocked twice.

"Uhm, Lieutenant Hawkeye? I need those painkillers..." He felt like a stupid child. A stupid helpless, useless, snotty kid. It was bad enough that they had saved him when he had been attacked, but with the bookshelf? He groaned inwardly.

_How the hell did I let the bastard Colonel help me with my pyjamas?! Damnit! I'm not just some stupid kid!_

He could hear footsteps inside the room, and Hawkeye came out with a sleepy yet motherly look upon her face. She was wearing a light blue nightie and a white dressing gown, as well as a pair of fluffy blue slippers. "Hi, Edward. You need your pills?"

"Yeah..."

"Well, I have them here, let's go to the kitchen and find you some water." She pulled the bottle of pills out of her right pocket.

Ed followed her. It was weird seeing a sleepy Hawkeye. She was always the one who was awake and alert in the office, and here she was, shuffling in her fluffy slippers in the middle of the night.

Ed gingerly took the stairs one step at the time. He followed Hawkeye into the kitchen and she let the tap run as the water got as cold as possible before taking a glass out of one of the cupboards. She filled it and handed it to him before she handed him the pills.

He drank down the entire glass.

"You need anything else, Edward?" she said kindly.

"No, I'm good."

"Then let's get back to bed."

"Sounds good."

Ed sat himself down on the bed and Hawkeye tucked him in.

She picked up a book from the floor and handed it to him.

"Thanks... And I'm sorry… for being so bothersome..."

"You know, Edward, you really should learn that it's okay to rely upon others. Maybe you'll realise that from this." She walked over to the door. "Good night, Edward, I hope you get some sleep."

Ed was left deep in thought.


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist.**

**And thank you so much to everyone who has reviewed, favourited and followed this story (and everybody else who reads it in general!) It really makes my day when I see your responses to this! Thanks!**

* * *

**Chapter Seven**

The day had come.

The most terrifying day of his life so far.

He knew he was going straight into the lion's den and be subjected to hours of torture.

Yet here he was, Roy Mustang, age twenty-seven, straightening his tie before the bedroom mirror.

_Come on, Roy. You can do this._

"No."

_It's for the mission._

"Not good enough."

_Do it for the kids._

"Still not good enough."

_You've faced worse._

"I'm not so sure."

_Yes you are._

"No I'm not."

_Fine, let Hawkeye shoot you._

"I'm going."

Roy took a deep breath. Then a couple more. He picked up the bouquet of flowers he and Hawkeye had bought a few hours ago.

_I am going to do this. I will sit down and be a perfect guest and make small talk about Fullmetal's fake past and be friendly with Mrs. Evans for the next few hours. I will do this because I am a professional and because of the boys with the broken bones. And I will do this so that Riza Hawkeye doesn't pull her gun at me._

He nodded at his reflection. "Good."

He went over to the neighbouring bedroom and knocked on the door. "Are you ready, Ed?"

"Nearly!"

"You need any help?"

"No, don't think so!"

Knowing Fullmetal, Roy opened the door. The kid was standing in the middle of the room, trying to button his black shirt.

"Hey! I said I didn't need any help!"

"You said you _thought _you didn't, and as your superior I am here to say that you clearly thought wrong."

"Smug bastard," he muttered under his breath.

"You want some help?"

"No I don't!"

"Because you seem to need it."

"Why?"

"Because the hole you're trying to push that button through, is the wrong one."

He growled and looked up at him as if he wanted to stab him. "Argh! Fine! Whatever! But not a word to anyone about this, okay?"

"Why?"

"Because I don't want people to know that Edward Elric can't button his shirt properly because of his automail and a couple of broken ribs!"

Roy paused. He hadn't thought about the fact that the automail would of course be causing him trouble with the shirt buttons. It couldn't be easy when he couldn't even feel his right fingers. Roy put the flowers down on top of the desk, and went over to Fullmetal. He deftly buttoned the shirt, leaving the top two open at Edward's request, something about how he felt too "professional" when he had them buttoned all the way. Roy had to say that when his hair was that long, it did look slightly odd when it was buttoned completely. Hawkeye had helped him plaiting his hair after it had been washed, so at least Roy didn't have to worry about that.

Deeming themselves ready for action, at least in Roy's head, the two of them went down the stairs to find Hawkeye already in her coat waiting for them. She was wearing a simple white dress and a pearl necklace. She looked pretty, but not too pretty for the occasion. Roy noticed that Fullmetal was leaving his gloves behind as Hawkeye helped him pull on his boots. He seemed annoyed, and Roy had to say he could understand him. It couldn't be a very nice to feel so useless that he couldn't pull on his own boots at the age of thirteen.

Roy pulled on his coat and the three of them went out into the car. He was tense, gripping the steering wheel with more force than necessary. If this was going to be like it was in the hospital cafeteria, he was in for a highly uncomfortable evening. He had spent most of the day making up fake stories about family outings, trips to the zoo, first day at school, all of it, together with Hawkeye and Fullmetal so that they would be able to corroborate any potential anecdotes.

"So, remember, I took you to the East City Zoo for the first time when you were three. That was when you tasted cotton candy and had melting pink sugar all over your face," Roy told the blushing boy in the backseat.

"Yeah."

"And the first time you met Elizabeth was when you were ten."

"I remember, don't nag me!"

The fact was that Roy was actually repeating it to make sure that he himself remembered it despite his stress. This was nothing like going over to Maes' house for dinner and saying hello to the newly born Elicia.

He calmed himself down, but all too soon they were outside an unfamiliar apartment. He knocked three times. The door opened and a delicious smell wafted through the air around them. There stood Mrs. Evans and her son. She had a wide grin on her face. Anthony was smiling shyly towards Edward.

"Ah, You made it! I'm so glad you found us, it's not always that easy!" She jumped forwards, hugging Roy and Hawkeye one at a time. She then put her hands on Fullmetal's arms, clearly remembering the ribs. She gave them an affectionate squeeze before stepping back. "Come in, come in! We're having lasagne, I hope that's alright with you?"

The three of them smiled and nodded before they hung their coats on the coat hangers that were being offered to them. It was a relatively small apartment with only the most necessary things. They clearly didn't have much money and made do with what they had.

* * *

Ed was uncertain about everything, but at least he wasn't as bad as the Colonel, he had seemed utterly terrified in the car. They were led into the small living room and over to a table that sort of connected the kitchen with the living room as there was no door between them. Ed sat down next to Mustang with Hawkeye sitting next to him again. Anthony and his mother were sitting on the other side of the table. The food was already on the table, the lasagne steaming tantalisingly in front of them.

"So, Edward, have you and your uncle always been close?" Mrs. Evans asked him as Ed cut up his food.

"Yeah, we went to the zoo this one time when I was three and he let me have cotton candy." Ed took a large bite, hiding the fact that he was inwardly cringing at the sweet and exited way he said it. He guessed he was proud of his acting.

"You should have seen it. His face was covered in melting, sticky pink, it was even in his hair. My sister laughed so much when she saw him as he excitedly told her about giraffes and got his hand stuck in his hair."

Ed blushed. That had never been a part of the agreed upon backstory. He had to give it to the bastard, he did lie well, but Ed was still mortified by the story.

"Oh! I would have loved to see some pictures of that!" Mrs. Evans said smiling in a motherly way. Anthony gave Ed a sympathetic roll of his eyes.

"Yeah, well, Uncle Bob, do you remember that time you emptied the cookie jar and tried to pin it on me? In the end Mom ended up slapping you for your childish behaviour. She must have been a great older sister."

It was Mustang's time to blush.

It soon became a war between the two alchemists which one could embarrass the other the most. Hawkeye laughed politely, Mrs. Evans laughed whole-heartedly, and Anthony just looked confused.

"Oh! I guess it's time I cleaned off this table!" Mrs. Evans exclaimed after fifteen minutes of this war of anecdotes.

Once their anger was forgotten, the two of them once again became very uncomfortable with Mrs. Evans probing questions. Ed was incredibly grateful when Anthony asked his mother if it was okay if he and Ed went to his room. She lit up.

"Yes, of course! Just leave the plates, I'll come get you when it's time for dessert!"

He followed Anthony to his room. He had many books on science and a large framed picture hanging over his bed with the Table of elements. Ed grinned when he saw it. "That's really cool." He nodded towards the picture as he said it.

Anthony lit up.

Ed looked through his bookshelves. He had some on some simple alchemy, but clearly not the best ones of them. Ed guessed most of these books had been bought second-hand. _I'm gonna give this kid a going away present, that's for sure. _

Ed picked out an interesting looking book. ""An Encyclopaedia of Spiders" sounds pretty cool."

"It's great, I've learnt tons of stuff from it. Did you know that there are fifteen different poisonous spiders that live in Amestris? Or that the smallest spider in the country is just a millimetre long?"

"Cool." Ed liked gaining knowledge in all scientific fields, and it seemed this kid did so too with a passion he rarely saw in anyone else than himself and Al when they got started on explaining alchemy. "Could I borrow this from you?"

"Sure! We can discuss it afterwards!"

"Great!"

Ed was moving slowly, mindful of his ribs as he kept looking through the books.

He picked out the most basic one of the alchemy books. "Alchemy For Beginners" it was called. "So what sort of transmutations do you do?"

"I can show you!" Anthony was really excited by now. He picked up a piece of chalk from one of the shelves, and quickly sat down on the floor. Ed gingerly joined him with a slight grunt as his rear hit the floor.

Anthony made the same transmutation circle that Ed had made the first time he tried alchemy back when he was five. He put his hands to the floor, although slightly carefully due to his arm. There was a flash of blue light, and a small wooden hedgehog was coming out of the floor. Ed had to admit that it actually looked rather good. Even though Anthony was far from his and Al's level, he would still be able to make a pretty good alchemist if he trained hard enough. He had drawn the circle quickly and with precise lines, and it was clear he understood the theory behind alchemy. Ed really wanted to tell him who he was so that he would be able to help this boy.

* * *

Roy wasn't sure what to think anymore. He and Hawkeye were sitting there, telling this smiling lady in detail about their first date. This date that had never happened and which they had neglected to plan to have to go into detail on. This was just really, really awkward, but they somehow managed to get through it. Thank god for the fact that they had had to go undercover as a couple before. At least they managed the body language and tone of voice.

But they had never been asked to describe every single moment of how they met.

Roy was sitting with his arm over Hawkeye's shoulders, her leaning slightly into him as he described the brand of chocolates he had bought her.

Mrs. Evans had a dreamy look upon her face as he talked. She was probably so interested in this because she still loved her husband and hadn't been able to let him go.

"And you remember, you didn't like the one with the lemon cream, so you said I could have that one."

Hawkeye playfully punched him in the chest and laughed. _God she is an amazing actress._

"Oh, how wonderful it is to be young and in love..." Mrs. Evans said dreamily.

_Yep, definitely reminiscing about her dead husband..._

* * *

All in all it had been a highly uncomfortable evening for Roy, and he was quite frankly overjoyed with being able to drive away from the apartment of emotional hell.


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist.**

**And thank you so much to everyone who has reviewed, favourited and followed this story! You rock! An of course thanks to everyone else who reads this as well.**

* * *

**Chapter Eight**

Ed had been rather pleased with the way the evening had gone when it came to how Anthony had been grinning as they kept discussing rather advanced recent scientific discoveries within Amestris. Ed knew that he probably hadn't had so much fun ever since his father had died. So even if they hadn't gathered any more intelligence, at least they had been able to do that for Anthony. Which was what had kept Ed smiling as they sat in the car on the way home.

Mustang seemed to be happy with the silence. He was regaining his breath it seemed. He generally looked like he had just run a marathon.

"Everything alright, Robbie-Boy?" Ed asked with an evil grin on his face.

The car suddenly swerved dangerously before Mustang steadied it. "Fullmetal! If you use that name one more time I swear I will burn you to a crisp!"

"Can't handle a little name-calling, _Bobby_?"

He gripped the steering wheel tighter. "_Fullmetal_..." he growled dangerously.

"Need I remind you that this mission will take a far longer amount of time if you either kill Edward or crash the car?" Hawkeye said.

The two of them stopped talking for the rest of the trip.

Ed lay down in bed quite soon after they got back. His ribs did not appreciate the bumpiness of driving, not one bit. Hawkeye came in, knocking twice on the door first. She had Ed's pills with her. He dutifully swallowed them and she gave him a warm nod as she left.

Ed was left on the bed, fully clothed and in a bit of a pinch. He may be able to slide out of the trousers (with a considerable amount of pain involved) but he couldn't get his fingers to work the shirt buttons, and he had no chance of sliding it over his head.

Ed groaned inwardly. He would have been spared so much embarrassment if he'd only thought about it earlier. He clapped his hands, and in a flash of blue lightning, the shirt he was wearing suddenly had been torn in two right next to the buttons. He gingerly slid it off his arms, before he clapped his hands again and repaired the shirt. Now only remained the tight pair of trousers. He slowly removed them, his ribs screamed with agony. After five minutes of hard work, he was finally sitting in bed, his chest bare, not bothering to put on his pyjama top. He said himself contented with sleeping only in his pyjama trousers.

There were three knocks on his door and suddenly the Colonel was standing in the doorway. Ed was still standing before his bed. The man seemed to take in the bruises on his chest, and for a second time in two days, Ed could have sworn he saw a flash of anger in Mustang's eyes.

"Anything I can do?" he said.

"Nope, I'm all good."

He ignored him and moved forwards to fluff his pillows and move back the covers so that all Ed had to do was lay himself down.

Ed mumbled a few choice words in the Colonel's direction as he grudgingly sat down on the bed and gingerly leaned back against the pillows. Mustang then put the covers over him, and, as Hawkeye had done the night before, handed him a book. "Remember. If you need anything, just ask and me or Elizabeth will help you."

"Sure."

"Good night, Edward." It was delivered in a way that could best be described as a warmer version of "you are dismissed."

"Night," Ed mumbled grumpily.

* * *

The next day was rather uneventful, Ed just spent the time reading on his bed, seeing as how both the Colonel and Hawkeye were adamant that he get plenty of rest.

When Monday morning came, Ed woke up an hour early so that he could take things at a more preferable pace. Hawkeye helped him wash his hair over the bathtub, and Ed scrubbed himself with a washcloth while wincing repeatedly after making her leave the room. She helped him dry off his automail as well as dry and brush his hair when he let her back in, now dressed in his boxers. She then plaited his hair for him and helped him on with his shirt and his trousers. He felt like a fucking two-year-old. At the same time he couldn't deny that it was immensely nicer on his ribs not having to do this on his own.

They had sat themselves in the car and had driven for about five minutes when Mustang suddenly spoke. "Now, remember, if you find yourself in trouble, you're allowed to use your alchemy."

"Yes, I know."

"I'm only saying this because you're hurt. You are a much easier target now with your ribs that way. If you feel that something is off, go immediately to Havoc, okay?"

"_Yes._"

_Damn annoying Colonel..._

When they reached the school, Ed immediately jumped out of the car, gasping with pain within half a second. He shut the door before any of the car's occupants could even say another word and walked hurriedly up to the school. The moment he came into the classroom, Catherine was upon him.

"Is it true you broke Max Olden's nose?!"

"Yeah."

"You look terrible, does that hurt?" She was pointing towards his black eye.

"Broken ribs are worse."

"You broke your **ribs?!**"

"Yes."

"How are you even at school?! If I broke my ribs I would stay at home!"

"Well, I would rather try to learn something."

"You're such a nerd! You should have some more fun! Come on! You're the new school hero! You can't just sit around doing homework!"

"Why can't I be the hero while doing my work?!"

"You see, _that's _how nerds talk. Live a little! Come over and sit with us! We want to know everything!" She dragged him over to her group.

"Hey, where's Nick?"

"He had the flu on Friday, he's still ill I guess."

"Oh."

The classroom door opened and Anthony appeared. Catherine dragged him over to them too. Soon everyone was signing his cast. Anthony looked confused as the pen was handed from one person to the next, everyone eager to sign their name on one of the things that proved that Max Olden was finally being beaten back.

Anthony was gaining a lot more attention than usual, and didn't seem to know what to think of it.

When they finally reached the thirty minute recess before lunch, the two of them headed out into the school grounds.

They really should have stayed inside.

Two of the four thugs were standing there, looking pissed off. The one Ed guessed was Max, was wearing a thick bandage over his nose. He also had a bunch of other injuries, looking like he'd been beaten up. Ed turned around, and realised that they had in fact been ambushed, because the remaining two boys were walking towards them from behind them.

"You little shit! Because of the expulsion my Pa beat me up! The least I can do is give you some more pain too!"

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING SMALL!"

Anthony grabbed him before he could run forwards, which probably was a good idea seeing as how Max was suddenly pointing a flick knife at him. Also, even if Ed could fight them, Anthony couldn't.

Anthony dragged him by his hand towards the right, and Ed, though hating to admit it, wasn't too sure about going into a knife fight with a couple of broken ribs.

They ran away from the school, the boys following them. Ed's ribs were in pure agony, he knew he wouldn't be able to run much more, and judging from how Anthony was wheezing, he wasn't doing so well either. They ran into what turned out to be a blind alley. They hid behind a couple of garbage bins.

"Come on now, Eddie-Boy, we're not gonna kill you... yet."

Ed was poised to clap his hands if someone didn't come to help them.

Suddenly Anthony shifted and Ed had a hand on his left shoulder.

Anthony screamed.

* * *

Jean Havoc was having a pretty good day. He'd managed to get the rather charming young school librarian to agree to go on a date with him. He had managed to grab the last chicken wrap in the kiosk that morning so that he had some good breakfast for once, and the plumber had finally fixed the broken toilet in the third corridor, so that he didn't have to worry about having another kid blaming him for not doing his work properly.

It was too good to last. He had been sitting in his little office, looking out the small window, when something had caught his eye. A blond plait on a short kid. It just had to be Ed. Then came the four people running after him and he _knew _with every fibre of his bodythat it was Ed.

_And he was in trouble._

The Boss had told him over the phone that Ed had been beaten up by four boys a few days ago. Apparently the Chief was in quite a bit of pain, but nothing life threatening.

Jean was still running for the door, though. It wasn't like the kid to run away from a fight. Running would also be hell on his ribs.

No. This wasn't right.

He followed them down the street. They were still about two hundred meters in front of him, though.

They turned into an alley, Jean was gaining on them, but then he heard a scream. It wasn't Ed, though.

_Must be the other kid._

He rounded the corner and ran forwards just as the leader of the group plunged a knife in behind a couple of garbage bins. There were a few other screams, including from the four boys. They backed away and Jean was afraid that he was too late.

"Hey! GET AWAY FROM THEM!"

He dived towards the bins, and was confused by the sight that met him. Ed was lying over the brown-haired boy, shielding him. Next to them was another boy. And he was clearly dead.

The left side of Ed's shirt was ripped and was steadily turning crimson.

"Shit!"

The four boys ran away. Jean didn't care. He stooped forwards and quickly removed Ed from the other boy. He lifted his shirt, assessing the damage. Fortunately it didn't look too bad, but he definitely needed stitches. Ed was cringing, but he didn't shout out in pain or anything. Jean had quickly removed the shirt he was wearing so that he was left wearing jeans and a white T-shirt. He pressed the shirt to the wound. Ed hissed through his teeth.

"Take it easy, Chief. It's not too bad luckily, but you can still bleed out."

"Anthony, you okay?"

"N-not really. Th-that's Nick, isn't it?"

Ed turned his head towards the dead body next to him. He sighed and nodded before turning back to the kid.

"Okay, Ed, we need to get you to a hospital," Jean said.

"Not again! What about the school nurse?"

"Ed, you're bleeding _heavily_."

"Fine..."

Jean lifted Ed into his arms against many protests and grunts. "Just keep pressure on that wound."

Ed grumbled.

"Mister Harrison, Sir? How do you know Ed's name?"

_Shit._

"The headmistress told me to keep an eye on you two after last Tuesday."

"Oh."

They jogged back to the school, Ed groaned because of his ribs. They ran to the school nurse and Jean called for an ambulance as the nurse did what she could for Ed.

* * *

Roy was sitting at home, a big stack of signed papers to his left and an even bigger stack of unsigned papers to his right. Hawkeye was sitting in the chair in front of him, making sure he didn't slack off.

The phone rang. Hawkeye stood up and walked off to the phone in the hallway.

"Yes, this is his girlfriend...Elizabeth Smith... Is he alright?... Oh... Well, thank you... We'll be right there... Thank you. Goodbye."

"What was it?"

"Edward's in the hospital. He's being treated for a knife wound."

"He WHAT?!"

"It's not life threatening, although he lost quite a lot of blood. I said we'd be there right away."

Roy went to the door and threw his coat on. They went to the car and was at the hospital in fifteen minutes. They were directed to Fullmetal's room, and were met by a nurse.

"I'm here for Edward Carlson."

"Oh, are you his uncle?"

"Yes."

"Thank god you're here! He needs at least twenty stitches and refuses any anaesthetics, it's a nightmare. He's already shoved the doctor to the floor for even coming near him with a syringe."

"We'll try to calm him down."

They went inside and found the fuming alchemist with a large bandage on his side. His chest was bare and he looked ready to kill. The bandages were already getting red.

"Edward! What is this about refusing anaesthetics!?"

"I WON'T DO IT! YOU GET THAT THING THE HELL AWAY FROM ME RIGHT NOW!"

"EDWARD! You will take that anaesthetic and you will look at me the whole time and not give a damn about what they're doing, alright?!" Hawkeye had spoken up and was staring at him with a look that threatened to shoot him otherwise.

Fullmetal fell silent and focused his attention upon Hawkeye. _Thank god for that woman._

Roy nodded to the doctor who gently moved forwards and started injecting the anaesthetic into several parts of the boy's side. Fullmetal grumbled and actually looked a bit afraid. He bit his lip and after half an hour they were done. The kid was stitched up and was soon wearing a clean set of bandages.

"Now, we'll be keeping you here overnight for observation, and then you need to make sure not to overexert yourself for the next few weeks," the doctor said. "And you, Mr. Carlson, you need to make sure to change the bandages and clean the wound daily in order to avoid infection."

Roy nodded and went out of the room after the doctor had left. He was angry as hell. They'd hurt his subordinate again. He had a very important phone call to make.

* * *

Max Olden was at home. He was going to kill those fucking kids. But not in front of an adult. And not with that kid's dead body there. He didn't want to be accused of being the serial killer. Who the fuck left that kid there? He was pale as hell.

He'd probably have nightmares for weeks about that kid.

There was a knock on the door and Max went to open it.

There were two uniformed men standing there.

"Are you Max Olden?"

"Yes, who are you?"

"Max Olden, you are under arrest for the attempted murder of a State Alchemist."

"What? I can't be arrested! I'm just fifteen!"

"This is by special order of the Führer of Amestris."

"What!? I only attacked that kid! I never attempted to kill a State Alchemist!"

"Take it up with the Führer." The man moved forwards and slammed a couple of handcuffs on him. "You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say may be used against you in a court of law..."


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist.**

**And thanks to every reader, reviewer, favouriter and follower, you guys put a big smile on my face the whole day!**

* * *

**Chapter Nine**

Ed hated this. He absolutely _hated _this. _Another fucking hospital. _At least he could be a bit prouder of this injury, though. This time he had jumped sideways to take the blow for another person. He felt a little shiver running down his spine. Judging from where he had been when he shielded Anthony, he had probably saved his life. That knife would have hit the boy straight in the chest. He would have been dead before an ambulance would have had the time to arrive. There was something wrong with that Olden kid. He was ready to kill, and he hadn't been aiming for Ed, he had wanted to kill Anthony first so he could make Ed suffer. He had seen it in his eyes. There was an unusual amount of malevolence in that glare.

"Something wrong, Edward?" Hawkeye asked. Mustang had gone home in order to pick up some books for him.

"Nah, just thinking."

"Alright then."

Ed was scared on Anthony's behalf. There was nothing stopping these bastards from going after him again. And Ed wouldn't necessarily be able to protect him the next time.

There was a knock on the door and Havoc came in.

"How you doing, Ed?"

"I'm fine." He was actually damn tired from blood loss and his side was stinging, but no way in hell he was telling anyone that. "Should you even be here?"

"I figured that seeing as how I was the one who found you, it wouldn't look too strange if I came in to see how you were doing."

"What happened to Nick's body?"

"Apparently it was taken to the coroner."

"Ah. What's gonna happen to Olden and his gang?"

"Don't really know."

"Oh. What happened to Anthony?"

"I left him with the school nurse, apparently he was going to be picked up by his mother."

"Oh, good."

Mustang suddenly came in. He was carrying a large stack of books.

"Hi, Boss," Havoc said.

"What are you doing here?"

"I'm checking up on Ed."

"Ah."

"We need to give Anthony some sort of protection, they could come after him again," Ed said.

"Actually, that won't be necessary."

"Why not?!"

"I just got off the phone with the Führer's office. The four boys responsible have been arrested."

"What?"

"The Führer was very concerned when I told him that you had been targeted a second time, so he signed a special order allowing the four fifteen-year-olds in question to be arrested and put on trial as grownups. They were charged with the attempted murder of a State Alchemist."

"You idiot! You blew our cover!"

"Well, what was I supposed to do?! This is the second time you've nearly been killed by those boys! It is my duty as your commanding officer to keep you out of harm's way as much as possible!" Mustang took a deep breath, calming himself. "Besides, the boys were taken away before anyone could see it."

The door was opened a third time, and this time Anthony was standing in the doorway looking pale. "Uhm... Ed? Why is your uncle calling himself your CO?"

Ed threw an alarmed look at Mustang. The man had obviously been startled by the noise and was still trying to collect himself.

"Ah, well, you see, Anthony..." Ed said awkwardly. He sighed. "Ah, hell. Let's just go with the truth, close the door."

Anthony was looking at the four of them, highly confused.

Ed took a deep breath, just to give people some time to stop him if that was better, but no one did. "Okay, Anthony, my name isn't Edward Carlson. It's Edward Elric." Ed was about to continue but Anthony interrupted him.

"Elric?! As in the Fullmetal Alchemist?!" He seemed excited.

"Yeah."

"That's incredible! I've heard so much about you! Is it true you can just clap your hands and then transmute just about anything?"

"Yeah."

"But why are you here? Is it to solve the murders?"

"Yes it is. I'm undercover with Colonel Roy Mustang," he nodded his head towards him. "First Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye." Another nod. "And Second Lieutenant Jean Havoc." A final nod.

Anthony turned towards Havoc. "So _that's _why you called him Chief!"

"Havoc! That's highly unprofessional of you!" Mustang said angrily.

"Sorry, Boss, but Chief here was practically bleeding out."

Mustang grumbled.

"Wait... Mustang! That makes you the Flame Alchemist! My Dad remembered you from Ishbal. He hated that war and respected you highly for the way you protected your men and always tried your best not to leave people in pain. A lot of people used that war to torture the Ishbalans. He looked up to you for never stooping that low even though you could have easily done so with your alchemy. He always wanted to tell you that, but he didn't get the chance." Anthony seemed to realise what he had said. "Sorry if I brought up any painful memories..."

Mustang was looking surprised and just slightly gratified. Ed didn't know too much about the war, but he did remember seeing all the soldiers that came through Resembool.

"No. It's okay. Thank you," Mustang said. Ed thought he saw Hawkeye giving the Colonel and Anthony a warm look.

"But, Ed... If you're the Fullmetal Alchemist, that explains why you're such a genius! Everything makes so much more sense now!" He suddenly went from eager to sad. "Which means that you'll be leaving as soon as you people are done here..."

"Which means that we can be pen pals. And I'll come visit you once in a while."

Anthony cheered up a bit at that. "Wow! I'm pen pals with a State Alchemist!" He looked about seven years younger for a second, filled with wondrous awe. His eyes were glimmering with the same light as they had done when he talked about the spider book or when he was about to transmute the hedgehog. "Mum will be so happy when I tell her! Of course I'll wait for the end of your mission, though!"

Ed grinned.

Anthony looked at Hawkeye and Mustang. His face fell. "Oh, crap! Sorry about my Mum! How on earth did you guys get through Saturday?!"

Mustang lost a bit of his usual composure at the thought of that. "Lots of practice."

"Yeah, I bet..." He turned towards Ed again. "By the way, I really just came to see how you were doing Ed. And to thank you for saving my life."

"Don't worry about it. I've faced worse." Ed lifted his right arm to illustrate his point.

* * *

Ed felt bad about not calling Al for over a week. It felt weird not having his brother there and he really wanted to call him, but Al would immediately know something was wrong and that Ed was hurt if he called. And Ed didn't want Al to worry. He'd call him in a few days.

Ed was on his way back to their house. He had finally been released from the hospital a few minutes ago. He was back in his tank top and black trousers. Unfortunately, this time he hadn't had Anthony there to help him, and so Mustang had been the one to help him get out of his hospital clothes and into his regular ones. His side was being a nightmare and it felt like each time he moved, something threatened to tear open. It was highly uncomfortable. It was bad enough with his ribs after all. The doctors had insisted that he'd use a wheelchair while being moved through the hospital, and Ed had felt once again like a helpless kid. He had of course protested it, but Hawkeye had been present, and nothing more needs to be said.

When they had reached the door, Mustang had gone ahead and driven the car up to the entrance. Limping the few steps over to the car and carefully getting inside it, he had finally managed to get away from the building and seriously hoped he wouldn't have to come back for a long time. He had a doctor's appointment in two-and-a-half weeks to get his stitches removed, but that was it. No more medical professionals, no more sterile white buildings, just freedom. It was great.

Mustang opened the car door for him as they reached the house. Ed got out gingerly. This was so stupid.

* * *

Roy was looking at his wristwatch. He had been doing paperwork for four hours straight. He had lost much time because of the hospital visits, so it was already one in the morning when he was finally done with signing the last piece of paperwork for the day. Hawkeye nodded to him as he stood up and they started extinguishing lamps around the building. Hawkeye went to the bathroom, and Mustang stood outside, waiting for his turn.

"NO! AL! ALPHONSE! ALPHONSE!"

_Thunk._

These weren't exactly the sounds Roy had hoped to hear from Fullmetal's bedroom.

He sighed and went over to the door, opening it. The kid was lying in a heap of crumpled blankets on the floor, thrashing about, obviously having a vivid nightmare.

Roy turned on the lights and went over to the small, twisting, moaning form lying there on the floor, and gently gripped his shoulders, talking to him and reminding him that his brother was still alive. He turned him towards himself, trying to get some sort of contact with the stubborn kid. That was when he noticed the red wet spot on his pyjama top. Fullmetal was wearing his set of red of pyjamas with white stripes, but part of the stripes were now crimson.

_Shit._

"Hey! Edward! Edward! Come on, Fullmetal! Wake up!"

"Whasgoingon?"

"Nightmare. Now come on." Roy sat him up despite repeated grunts of pain. "We need to get this off, work with me now, lift your arms!"

Fullmetal just groaned, obviously not fully awake. He slowly lifted his hands in the air after a while.

Roy slid the garment over his head, dropping it on the floor. The kid had obviously turned and twisted around in his sleep quite violently, because most of the bandaging on his left side was soggy with blood.

"Oh. That isn't good," Ed said, looking at it sleepily.

_Of course it's not, Fullmetal!"_

"Hawkeye! Come in with some bandages! We need them now! And a towel!"

Fifteen seconds later, Hawkeye was in the doorway in her dressing gown, first aid kit at the ready. She went over to Roy and handed it to him.

"Okay, we need to make sure your stitches haven't been ripped," he told Fullmetal as he removed the bandages around his midsection. The kid bit his lip as Roy reached the wound. As soon as he removed the soggy padding beneath the bandages, blood started running from the wound. He dabbed the towel to the injury and counted the stitches. Thankfully they were all there. "Hawkeye, help me out here."

"Yes, Sir."

They had soon got a thicker layer of padding and some clean bandages over the wound, and Hawkeye had taken the bloodied sheets and thrown them in the rubbish. She changed the sheets, and Roy, not taking any chances with the stubborn kid, lifted him into the bed.

Fullmetal had kept unusually quiet during all of this, but Roy couldn't blame him. He had large bags under his eyes and had just woken from a horrific nightmare.

Hawkeye patted the kid gently on the shoulder, and they left him to go back to sleep on his own.

_Please, Fullmetal. All I ask is for __**one **__day where you don't get into trouble. Is that too much to ask?_


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer: I do Not own Fullmetal Alchemist.**

**And THANK YOU to everyone who has read, favourited, followed or reviewed this story!**

* * *

**Chapter Ten**

The re-bandaged his chest the next morning just to make sure seeing as how Ed was adamant that he should go to school.

"I've spent most of the last week in the hospital, and look what happened! Nick might be dead because of me! I can't let it happen again!"

Both Hawkeye and Mustang had tried to change his mind, but they had been unsuccessful. After they finally relented, Ed limped off angrily, seeing as how he couldn't exactly go stomping off.

He didn't say anything as he sat in the car, and got out as quickly as possible once they reached the school. When he opened the classroom door, he was greeted by his usual welcoming committee.

"NERDY-BOY! You're back! You're ALIVE!" Catherine bounded forwards, hugging him and leaving Ed wincing with pain. "Oh, right, you're hurt! What happened? Debby from the seven-year-olds said that she saw you being carried inside the school by the new janitor and that you were covered in blood."

"Sounds about right..."

"But she said there was **SO **much blood, why are you back just two days later?" She was sitting on a nearby desk, swinging her legs back and forth.

"Because I'm stubborn as hell."

"So you _**shouldn't **_be back here yet! I'm right? Right?"

"I halfway died of blood loss two days ago. No, I shouldn't be out of _bed _most likely."

"Wow, how did it happen?"

"We were attacked by Max Olden and his gang, I jumped in front of Anthony to shield him when Max tried to stab him in the chest." Ed figured that lying to the girl was no point, she was way too nosy to believe in a lie about this.

"Wow! That's so cool!"

"How is getting stabbed cool?"

"Don't know! It just is!" The girl was beaming.

Ed tried to limp over to his desk, but was quickly stopped by the hyperactive girl blocking his way. "So it was the left side, huh? Can I see?"

"There's nothing to see!"

"Whatcha mean?"

"It's all covered in bandages!"

"Can I see them, then?"

"Why?"

"Because it's cool!"

"No, it's not!"

She suddenly jumped forwards, tackling him to the ground, knocking the wind out of him. While he was temporarily immobilised by pain and lack of air, she lifted his shirt up, revealing the bandages. "WOW! NERDY-BOY'S GOT ABS!" she shouted excitedly.

"Get off! You're hurting my ribs!" Ed wheezed.

"Hey! What are these?!" She noticed the scars running down his right side from the automail. She tugged on the right side of his shirt. "AUTOMAIL! COOL!"

Steve had walked over and he dragged her off of Ed. "Catherine! That is _not _how you do things! He's injured! You don't solve anything by hurting him further!"

"But it's _cool!_"

"Doesn't matter."

Steve released her and helped Ed get to his feet. "Sorry, man. Won't mention it to anyone else." He turned sternly towards Catherine. "And neither will you."

"Scout's honour!" She saluted him with her left hand, which didn't exactly fill Ed with a whole lot of confidence.

Ed was thoroughly relieved that Anthony chose that exact moment to arrive. Ed immediately limped over to him and Anthony looked at him worriedly.

"Ed! Should you even be out of bed?!"

"Probably not." He gave him a look that said _but we both know why I have to be here. _They looked towards Nick's empty desk.

Anthony looked like he didn't know what to think all of a sudden. Ed figured that it was about then that Anthony realised that they had actually found a dead body and that it belonged to someone who had been in the same classroom as him for the last six years.

He looked pale and slightly green.

"Anthony, you don't look too good..."

"I need to leave."

"Let's find the school nurse."

Anthony gave a stiff nod. Ed put his hand on his shoulder and steered him towards the nurse's office.

They walked, Anthony unsteadily and Ed limping, but they reached her office in two minutes. Ed knocked three times on the door.

Miss Grace Hopkins, the school nurse, was in her thirties and had a kind face and her hair was a rather orange shade of red which she kept in a tight bun at the back of her head. She smiled kindly at them as she opened the door.

She took in the two boys, not exactly sure which one needed treatment. Ed still had two cuts on his face plus the black eye, as well as the limp. Anthony's arm was in a cast and he looked light green. Ed could understand her confusion. "My friend's not feeling well."

"Oh, well come in then."

Ed sat down next to him as the nurse went on examining Anthony. "Did something happen to cause this?"

"We sort of remembered finding Nick's body..."

"Oh, well, Anthony, dear, how about we send you home then?"

"My Mum's out of town until tonight..."

"Why don't you come home with me? My uncle's home, and I probably shouldn't be here anyway..." Ed suggested.

"That sounds like a very good idea, would you like that, Anthony?"

Anthony nodded.

"Well, Edward, I'll let you call your uncle then. Meanwhile I'll go and inform your teachers where you are.

Ed leaned forwards carefully and picked up the receiver once Miss Hopkins had left the room. He dialled their home number.

Nothing. The phone wasn't working.

The office door opened again and Ed turned around to face Miss Hopkins. She walked into the room, her sweet smile still on her face.

"Miss Hopkins?"

"Oh, please do call me Grace, Ed."

"Grace? The line's dead."

"It is? That's strange... let me have a look."

She leant forwards, but instead of picking up the phone, she suddenly plunged a syringe into his left arm.

Ed slammed his automail fist into her stomach, he started getting up from his chair, panicking slightly. His movements were slowing down, everything became wobbly. He fell to the floor.

"Edward! Are you alright?!" Anthony asked, he hadn't seen the needle that was suddenly rammed into his right calf by Grace who was lying on the floor beside Ed.

Ed couldn't stop the world from spinning. His body felt limp and heavy. "Damn... You..." were the last words that escaped his mouth as everything around him turned black.

* * *

Anthony was feeling dizzy. His head was swimming. Then he remembered what had happened. The nurse, the syringe, _Edward_. _Oh no, oh no, oh no!_ His body was feeling weak and he couldn't yet move around very effectively. _Oh God, Ed, please be alright!_ He got a bearing of his surroundings. _I'm on the floor? I don't remember that._ He struggled himself up on all fours, standing there until the world stopped spinning. He then crawled slowly towards the office door. _Jean Havoc, I need to find him._ He struggled as he leaned against the wall, trying to get himself into a standing position. He failed at first and his knees buckled, sending him crashing to the floor. The second try yielded the same result. The third one, on the other hand, although it didn't end much better, at least this time he had grabbed the doorknob, forcing it open and fallen into the hallway outside. He got up on his feet again, gaining more and more control over his limbs. He finally reached Lieutenant Havoc's office, and burst through it.

* * *

Jean was in his office, eating lunch. It was eleven thirty and he had treated himself to a baguette filled with cheese, ham, salad and a few cucumber slices. He grabbed his coffee cup as the door to his office suddenly burst open. Jean dropped the cup in surprise. It crashed to the floor but none of the room's occupants noticed.

"Mr. Havoc! Please! It's Ed!" Anthony called out.

Jean was immediately on high alert. "What's wrong?!"

"She took him! The nurse took him!"

"What?! When!?"

"I don't know! Around eight thirty I guess. I only just woke up in her office. She gave me and Ed something in a syringe."

"Shit!" Jean exclaimed, turning abruptly around and grabbing the phone. He dialled Colonel Mustang's number. "Come on... come on... pick it up..."

"Hello, this is Ro-"

"Boss, it's Ed. He's been taken."

"WHAT!?"

"It was the school nurse. I'm here with Anthony, he says she injected them with something. That was three hours ago."

"SHIT!"

"What do we do, Sir?"

"Go to her office and see if you can find any clues there. If there aren't any, go to the headmistress and tell her your rank and our mission and try to get all the information you can on where the nurse may be hiding Fullmetal."

"On it, Boss."

* * *

Edward was woken up by someone stroking his left cheek. "Wake up, Edward, you need to be awake for the concert to begin..."

Ed was cold. He was lying on a metal table it seemed. His back was exposed though. His hands and legs were restrained. Ed opened his eyes. All four of his limbs were fastened to a table leg each, rendering him completely defenceless. He had been stripped down to his boxers. He turned his gaze upon the rest of the room. He was in an abandoned morgue. He was lying on a coroner's table where a hole in the back was cut out. _So she can carve the array into her victims' backs._

Ed felt himself shivering.

He looked up at the woman standing to his left.

"My dear boy. I have been waiting for many people to arrive in my office. But you, my dear boy, you are so special that I knew I needed you the minute I saw you. I even risked taking out the two of you, just to get what I wanted."

"What have you done with Anthony!?"

"Nothing, my dear. I only need _you _after all. He should have woken up by now and will have no after effects what so ever."

"Why the hell are you doing this, lady?!"

"Oh, Edward, I'll tell you why. Did you know that certain children with a certain hair colour gives off noise? Only I can hear it. The noise is just a buzz at first, it's not done yet, it needs some tuning. I am able to do this. All the children that have been tuned were singing with beautiful voices by the time I was done. But you Ed, **you are special**. You were singing before I got to you. I could hear it the moment you arrived at my office two days ago. It was the clearest little tune I've ever heard. I am sure that with a bit of tuning, you could become a whole symphony."

"What the heck?!"

"And now, my dear Edward, let the music begin..."

And she sliced a knife across his chest.

* * *

**So sorry about the cliffhanger! I'll try to update quickly, hopefully during the next 24 hours!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist.**

**And THANK YOU EVERYBODY for reviewing, favouriting, following and just for reading this story!**

* * *

**Chapter 11**

Ed grunted in pain as the mad woman brought the blade over his chest for the third time, making a deep cut from where the automail began at his collarbone and down to his left armpit. He wouldn't lie, he was scared as hell. He was scared about the pain he was facing, he was scared of dying, but most of all he was scared of the fact that he'd be leaving Al behind. He wouldn't be able to fulfil his promise to his brother, and it terrified him.

_Damn you, Mustang! You'd better find me alive or I swear I'll haunt your ass till the day you die!_

Ed Actually found some comfort in knowing that on his priority list, fear of pain was actually the least daunting of the three. He had gone through automail surgery on his arm and leg at the same time, he could handle a bit of torture!

_Although it isn't exactly a cheerful prospect either though..._

"Hrrngh." Another cut. And another. And another.

"What the heck is wrong with you!"

"Me? There's nothing wrong with me. It's everybody else. When nobody but me can appreciate what a work of art this is, it makes it even more of my duty. I am liberating the music of your soul, Edward. You should be thankful my dear boy."

She brought a blood-spattered hand to rest on his right cheek. "You are so lucky, the way your soul is singing, if only you could hear it! I am setting you free!"

"Well I don't want you to! It's my soul after after all!"

"But when only I know how to set it free, it is my privilege and my burden to do so. Believe me, Edward, I do not wish to kill you, but this is the only way. Your soul will thank me, so just bear with me."

She suddenly put the knife away after making another cut, this time along his cheek.

She moved over to his flesh leg, and Ed felt dread filling his entire body. He had seen the pictures, the damn woman was going to break his toes. However, she suddenly picked up a pair of pliers instead. She was stroking his foot in a caring fashion. "You know, Edward dear, with such a strong song, I think I will have to use stronger tuning."

She then started removing his nails.

* * *

Roy was seething. How the hell could a fucking nurse just carry with her a teenage boy in broad daylight without anyone noticing her? And in front of him was a woman who had the guts to actually accuse him of lying to her about being a military officer.

"Listen to me, Miss! My thirteen-year-old subordinate is most likely being tortured as we speak! He is being tortured by your employee!"

"I don't believe it. Miss Hopkins has an excellent record. Youon the other hand, have been lying to me since the moment we met."

Roy growled, and Hawkeye was thankfully choosing that moment to hand him his ignition gloves. Roy snapped his fingers, setting the miniature palm tree next to the desk on fire just as Hawkeye fired six bullets into the floor around the headmistress' desk.

The woman quickly changed her attitude towards them. She became exceedingly helpful, pulling out her staff files and giving them the home address of her now ex-school nurse.

The three of them, Roy, Hawkeye and Havoc, left the office swiftly. They got into the car and drove for about five minutes before they came upon a bright yellow house. Roy didn't bother knocking. He stormed inside, hand poised to snap. His two Lieutenants followed him inside the house before they split up, Havoc taking the upstairs, Hawkeye taking the cellar and Roy taking the ground floor.

Roy walked into a very normal-looking living room, a few pot plants were used for decorating the brightly coloured room. Everything was looking so normal and sane. Toonormal. It was the same with the kitchen.

"Uh, Boss? You'd better come up here and have a look at this..." Havoc's voice came from upstairs.

Roy quickly took the stairs two steps at a time. He found Havoc standing before an open wardrobe. He walked up beside him. There weren't any clothes in the wardrobe. There were lots and lots of pictures of the murdered children, including ones taken after death. In the middle however, was a large picture of Fullmetal as he limped out of the hospital. There was a piece of paper fastened to the photograph. "The golden boy" was printed in large red letters.

In a shelf above the pictures, Roy picked out a journal of some sort. He opened it and read the first page.

_**Name:** Jennifer Larson_

_**Age:** Eight_

_**Tuning methods:** Cuts, broken fingers._

_**Effects:** A very nice little song of love and loss. It was beautiful, but didn't last very long. Tuning needs revision._

_**Estimated tuning time:** 13 hours._

_**Actual tuning time:** 12 hours 33 minutes._

_**Time of death:** 15 December 1911, 7.26 AM._

The journal had seven other entries like this, and then Roy's eyes fell upon the entry for Edward Carlson. Parts of it weren't filled out, but the "tuning methods" were. Roy felt sick. This was really bad. This was much worse than the rest of the children.

_**Estimated tuning time:** 48 hours._

Which meant that Fullmetal had about 43,5 hours left to live.

Roy felt a cold shiver going down his spine.

"Sir." Hawkeye had joined them. "I found a diary. You might want to take a look." She held out a brown book for him.

He opened it and read a few of the more recent entries.

_29/11/11_

_Dear diary._

_It happened again when a student came in today, the buzzing was there the whole time. It sounds like something wants to be set free. I think it has such potential._

_02/12/11_

_Dear diary._

_Another one, it's happening more frequently, I just want it to stop, it sounds like they're hurting._

_I need to find a way to help._

_09/12/11_

_Dear diary._

_I think I know what's causing it. It's their souls. They're crying out to me, asking me to help. There was this boy, Adam, he broke his leg. There was a lot of blood, and that's when I heard it. It was singing to me, asking to be set free._

_I will help them._

_14/12/11_

_Dear diary._

_I am going to do it. I'm going to help set her soul free. I've got her right here beside me. She's sleeping at the moment, but she'll be awake within the hour. I am all ready. I found the perfect location, I have everything I need to help._

_15/12/11_

_Dear diary._

_I actually did it. Her soul gave out its song, but it was too weak. I need to work on my tuning method._

_22/12/11_

_Dear diary._

_A new one, a boy, his song was stronger, I think it is like that with boys. Don't know why. It sang out loud and clear._

_It was good to know I helped._

_19/01/12_

_Dear diary._

_Today I realised something, the stronger the song, the longer it takes. I had a boy who lasted for 24 hours._

_It was a powerful ballad that kept singing for 7 minutes. When it was done I released his soul with the array._

Roy kept flicking through the pages until he reached the entry from two days ago. It had been written with much more force as though the person was excited and couldn't wait to tell their story.

_10/02/12_

_Dear diary._

_You won't believe what happened today! A boy, he was golden. His eyes were glowing with gold even! And he was singing. He was singing with two voices, and he had hardly had any work done at all. I haven't heard anything like it before. His soul is crying to share its song. It was clearly just a small part of its true potential._

_I simply **must** help my golden boy. No matter what._

Roy didn't like this at all. She had called him hers because she could "hear" him? This woman was completely deranged. And Fullmetal is suffering because of it.

"Sir?" Hawkeye said, uncertainly. She must have noticed how pale he had become.

"Right! We need to find any addresses she's worked or lived in before. She needs a place where nobody can hear screaming 24/7. She also clearly has access to many different types of medical equipment. I'll call Hughes to hear if she's got a criminal record."

"Yes, Sir!"

Roy went down the stairs, in order to ring to Hughes' office. A lady answered.

"Yes hello, you've reached the military, what can we do for you?"

"I need you to connect me to Lieutenant Colonel Maes Hughes."

"I'm sorry, Sir, but I cannot connect you from an outside line."

"I'm Colonel Roy Mustang and my code is Oscar-Mike-Charlie-9-7-6-0"

"Hang on while I verify your code."

"Hurry up! It's an emergency!"

"Your code was verified, please hold on while I connect you."

There was half a minute of beeping.

"Hi, Roy! I was just about to call you! Did you know Elicia made-"

"Hughes! I need your help!"

Maes had obviously heard the urgency in his tone because he became deadly serious. "What is it?"

"It's Fullmetal. He's been taken by a serial killer and he's only got about forty-three hours left to live."

"What do you need me to do?"

"Look through criminal records, do you have any mentions of a nurse by the name of Grace Hopkins anywhere?"

"I'll check it out. But Roy, it's gonna be okay, Ed will be alright. Forty-three hours is a long time."

"Maes, he's going to be tortured to death, we need to find him as soon as possible."

* * *

Ed was aching all over. His whole body was throbbing with pain. She had broken each of his flesh fingers and toes, as well as dislocating his knee and breaking his elbow. And she didn't seem to be done yet. How long she was going to "let his soul sing freely" he had no idea, but he knew she must have been torturing him for at least five hours now.

She returned to his side, a scalpel in her hand.

"What are you going to do?"

"I am going to tell you something, Edward dear. I am a bit of an accomplished alchemist, actually. And I have managed to create two arrays of my own creation. One of them is used to release the soul after the song has been sung. The other one is used to help the song reach its potential. I'm not going to lie, my dear boy, it is going to hurt quite a lot, but it will be worth it."

She lifted the scalpel and began carving a transmutation circle into his chest. Once she was done, she gently placed her hands on the array, and blue lightning appeared.

Ed screamed.


	12. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist.**

**And thank you to everyone who has read, followed, favourited and reviewed!**

* * *

**Chapter Twelve**

Roy didn't know what to do anymore. They had twelve hours left, which meant that Fullmetal had been in a living hell for the last thirty-six hours already.

He was sitting at the desk in their house, looking through every file that they had been able to find on Grace Hopkins.

The phone rang.

Roy had leapt for the phone at the first ring, desperate for any clues on Fullmetal's whereabouts.

"Hey, Roy, we've got a lead on where Ed might be. We looked through her resume, did you know our nurse worked in a morgue before she came to Amsel? And the good city just happens to have an abandoned hospital ten minutes away from where she lives. I'd go look there if I were you," Hughes told him.

"Thank you, Hughes, I'll let you know how it went."

"Just find Ed."

"I will."

Roy rang the school where Havoc was stationed and to the library where Hawkeye was looking through local records.

Roy picked the two of them up and they drove as quickly as possible to the abandoned hospital. They ran towards the building and Roy was relieved to see that there were signs that this was the place. The lock on the door had been cut and there were blood stains on the wall, as if someone had accidentally touched it with a bloodied knife and a palm.

They went over to the reception desk where there was a crude map of the hospital. They went down the staircase to the left, following the beam from the flashlights. They finally found the arrow pointing towards the morgue. Roy heard voices from inside and he kicked the door open, gloved fingers ready to snap.

"Oh no, we can't have any of that. I guess we'll have to rush the big crescendo." The woman knelt down and slammed her hands to the floor. There was a flash of blue lightning and then the room exploded.

* * *

Ed knew she had made a "contingency plan" in the event that someone should come looking. He knew because in between his grunts of pain, she had dug her fingers into the wound in his side and used the blood to draw an array on the floor. This had of course been before she had just used the array on his chest. He had never been in that amount of pain ever. It was all-consuming and she had reactivated it about every four hours since. He knew he wouldn't be able to talk if he tried, his voice was temporarily gone from screaming. She was just about to activate the damn array again when the door had suddenly been slammed open. Ed had been blinded by a flashlight, and didn't see anything before there was a bright blue light and he suddenly was hanging sideways by his restraints while being covered by rubble. Everything was hurting, he had blood flowing down his face and his remaining limbs were screaming with pain from being jerked around like that.

"ED!"

_Was that Havoc?_

"EDWARD! TALK TO ME!"

_It is!_

Ed was woozy from the constant torture, but he still felt a tinge of annoyance at his lack of voice.

_God, it would feel good to sleep, though, wouldn't it?_

_Wait! Hell no! Havoc is calling for me, I'm getting saved!_

Ed hated being unable to move, he had no strength left.

"BOSS! RIZA! EDWARD! ANSWER ME!"

There were a series if coughs.

"I'm alright, you find Ed?" It was Mustang.

"Sorry, Boss, I'm stuck."

"Fine, any injuries?"

"No, my leg's trapped though, maybe a sprain or something, but that's it."

"I got a cut in my side, but it's not too bad. Hawkeye is out cold, but she has a steady pulse.."

A lot of dust came down from the collapsed ceiling and Ed began to cough.

"FULLMETAL?! IS THAT YOU?"

Ed wanted so badly to do anything else but cough, but that was all he could do. And even that caused him a significant amount of pain. He suddenly heard a snap in front of him, and suddenly someone was holding a torch a few metres from him. "FULLMETAL!" Mustang was walking quickly towards him before he sank down to his knees in front of him. Ed saw that he had used parts of his sweater to make a torch by tying it around a small metal bar. "Ed? Are you with me?"

"Yeah," he croaked, barely getting any noise out before he began coughing again.

_Damn it hurts!_

Ed saw the relief on the Colonel's face. The man then shone his torch on him, and he froze. Ed knew he must look bad, but seeing the Colonel Bastard himself go pale by the way he looked made him feel the pain in his body a lot more.

* * *

Roy felt sick when he looked over his subordinate. The kid looked like absolute hell. There was barely an inch left on that small body that wasn't covered in blood. The damn woman had even removed his nails before breaking his fingers and toes. And what's the deal with the array? It's not the same as the one from the files.

He was angry that the woman was most likely dead, because he would have liked to be the one who killed her.

Roy looked for a way to free him, but there didn't seem to be any way for him to do it. Then he realised that he might just have a possibility, seeing as how Fullmetal was hanging from his right arm and leg.

Roy crouched down in front of the young boy, and put a consoling hand on his shoulder. "Listen, Ed, I'm going to use my flames to heat the metal of the handcuff holding your right arm. After that I'm going to have to ask you to use your alchemy to free the rest of yourself."

There was the slightest of nods from the boy.

Roy snapped his fingers and directed a very concentrated burst of flames at the thinnest point of the handcuffs. A few seconds later, they snapped and Fullmetal fell sideways into Roy's outstretched arms to stop the kid from slamming to the ground. The kid clung to him for a second, metal hand clutching his shoulder, before he was helped to reach his mostly unmoving arm due to the broken bones. He gently let his hands touch, while biting back a gasp, so different from his usual cocky clapping.

Ed soon touched the handcuffs of his left wrist and they broke apart. Roy readjusted his grip before he led Ed to his legs. The motion made the boy gasp in pain, and Roy suddenly saw that his right knee was dislocated. Roy felt another surge of anger.

After Ed gingerly had put his hands together twice more, the kid was practically sleeping against Roy's chest, the transmutations had really taken what little strength the kid had left.

"Thank you for coming," the kid whispered.

"What happened to your voice?"

"Haven't got any left for now."

Roy suddenly realised that the kid must have been screaming so much that his voice was gone. He unconsciously clutched the boy tighter to his chest. He carried him over to where he had heard Havoc talking from. Roy had of course had to leave the torch so that he could carry Ed. "Hey, Havoc, I've got Ed."

"How is he?" There was relief in his voice.

"Not so good, but he'll live."

"Good."

"Do you think you can get out?"

"Honestly? No. Not without alchemy. Go find Riza so that she can take care of Ed before you help me out."

"Fine."

Roy went over to where Hawkeye's body was just visible in among the rubble and the darkness. He laid Ed gently down so that he could shake Hawkeye awake. Ed made a slight move against being moved away from the source of heat, but he complied all the same, and Roy removed his sweater, putting it over the freezing kid. Roy felt bad about not realising sooner how cold the kid must be. There was no heating in the old hospital and he was only in his boxers and had been so for over thirty-seven hours, as well as the fact that he had been lying on a cold metal table. Edward clutched the sweater with his right hand, seeing as how he didn't want to use his left. Fullmetal was practically sleeping by now, he only seemed half-aware of his surroundings.

Roy gently shook Hawkeye's shoulders. She started muttering and was soon awake. She had some blood running from the left side of her head, staining her clothes. "Hey, Lieutenant?"

"Sir?"

"I've got Fullmetal, he's going to be fine. I need you to look after him while I go and free Havoc from the rubble."

She sat up slightly, brushing her fringe out of her eyes and putting her hair behind her ears, assuming her usual professional demeanour. "Yes, Sir."

Roy watched as she moved over to Ed before she gently checked his temperature with her hand. She removed her coat and put it over Ed's shivering form. Roy picked up the torch lying on the floor, giving an apologetic glance at an understanding Hawkeye. She held a comforting hand on Ed's cheek.

"Hey, Havoc? How are you doing?" Roy asked, walking over to him.

"I'm fine, Boss."

Roy found him, and not really having anything else to use, he made a small transmutation circle using some of the blood oozing from the wound in his right side. He put his hands to it and shifted the rubble by creating a stone hand pushing it away from Havoc's trapped legs. Havoc wriggled free and scooted backwards to best of his ability. Checking him for injuries, Roy noticed that he had a rather deep cut on his right shin as well as above his left eye, but he was otherwise unharmed, even counting the sprained ankle. That meant that the only one with any serious injuries was Edward.

Havoc got to his feet and he was limping slightly, but he was thankfully able to walk on his own. This meant that Roy would be the one to carry Ed, though. They got back to where Hawkeye was lightly stroking Ed's hair, trying to get him to calm down in his shivering sleep. When Roy looked at the small body, covered in injuries with hardly any strength left, he had a hard time thinking of him as Fullmetal. This wasn't a soldier, this was a thirteen-year-old kid who had been tortured by a madwoman. Roy felt bad for letting the woman do this to him for thirty-six hours.

_I should have found him sooner._

"Okay, we need to find a way out of here," he told his subordinates. "I'll carry Ed."

He lifted up the small boy who made a voiceless whimper as he put a hand under his dislocated knee. Roy didn't want to cause him any more unnecessary pain, and laid him down again. "Hawkeye, do you have any experience in popping back dislocated knees?"

"I've had to to it twice, so yes, Sir."

"Could you do it for him?"

"Yes, Sir."

She went over to Ed's sleeping form. She positioned herself by his right knee, before she took hold of it, and popped it back. Ed woke up with a start, gasping. Roy put a hand on his flesh shoulder."Hey, Ed, it's okay, we just put your knee back into place. We're going to get you out of here, okay?"

Ed gave a relieved nod, and Roy lifted him up again. He carried him halfway through the hallway outside the morgue, before he saw something. The rest of the hallway was caved in.

They were trapped.

* * *

**So that's chapter twelve! **

**Hopefully I'll be able to post the next chapter sometime tomorrow.**

**AND A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL!**


	13. Chapter 13

**Here we are, sorry about the cliffhangers!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist.**

**And thank you so much to my wonderful readers, followers, favouriters and reviewers, you have made this so fun to write!**

* * *

**Chapter Thirteen**

Roy laid Ed gently down, walking over to the rubble blocking their way. He could of course try to blast it away with his alchemy, but the odds weren't really in their favour. More of the building would probably cave in and this time they might not be as lucky. They could really use a healthy Fullmetal Alchemist right about now.

Roy sighed and sat down by the kid's side, placing himself next to him and putting him on his lap in order to at least try to warm him up. Ed didn't have any strength to fight him.

"What the hell, Colonel?" he said in a hoarse whisper.

"You're cold as hell, kid." Roy put his arms closer around him.

God knew he wouldn't have been able to forgive himself if he got Fullmetal killed. He was glad just to be able to make sure that nobody took that kid against his will again. Roy couldn't help but blame himself for this. The kid had been suffering because he hadn't listened to his instincts and kept him at home when he was as injured as he was. If he hadn't gone to school that day, none of this would have happened.

"Hey, Ed? What's this array on your chest?" Roy pointed towards it.

"Don't touch it! Please!" he whisper-shouted.

"What's wrong? What is it?" Roy was alarmed by the urgency and the fear in the voice.

"Whatever you do, don't touch it! Don't activate it!"

"Why? What does it do?"

"Torture. So much pain." The kid cowered at the memory.

"WHAT?!" Roy was outraged. The damn woman had carved something into his subordinate's skin that caused Edward Elric to cower at the memory? The kid spoke of automail surgery as if it wasn't so bad, but being faced with this caused him absolute panic? Roy shuddered to think of how painful that must have been. "How long did she use this?" he asked through gritted teeth.

"At least twenty-four hours."

Roy unconsciously put his right hand at the back of the kid's head in order to lend him a bit of comfort and warmth. Roy didn't care if she was dead, he was going to fry that woman's corpse just for good measure.

Edward was sleeping again, snuggled against Roy's chest, and he suddenly felt a bit of fear. What if this triggered some sort of dependancy from the boy that Roy neither had the time nor the experience to actually know what to do with? But then he remembered the outraged whisper when he had put him in his lap, and realised with a sigh of relief that this would most likely be an event that they would never talk about ever again. Soon things would be back to normal, and everything would be just as it should be. Roy would of course take care of him, just as he did all his subordinates, but that would be it.

And things would be as they should.

_Good._

* * *

Jean slid down the wall opposite the Colonel who was sitting with Ed on his lap, keeping the kid warm. He had been absolutely horrified upon seeing the state that Ed was in. Most soldiers hadn't been subjected to this sort of thing, and here he was, barely thirteen years old, covered in his own blood, unable to walk because of the sheer exhaustion from the pain, as well as the broken toes and the newly popped back knee.

He could see the Boss' anger when he took in Edward's injuries, and he understood him perfectly. That woman had tortured the youngest member of their team for about thirty-seven hours. But what the kid said, or whispered really, about that transmutation circle, had shaken Jean to his core. That kid was strong, he was able to come back within a year after automail surgery of both his leg and his arm at the same time. And this kid had been terrified by the thought of activating that array again. Even Riza had turned pale at the thought.

No this wasn't right.

Edward was supposed to be the team's little fireball. It actually broke Jean's heart a bit to think that the kid probably wasn't even going to respond to being called small. And now they were stuck in a hospital. It was almost ironic. What they really wanted more than anything was to get Ed to a hospital right now, and their problem was that they couldn't get out of one.

It really just wasn't fair to the boy.

"Hey, Boss?"

"Yes?" Mustang answered.

"How's Chief doing?"

"He's sleeping. I don't think he's getting any warmer, though."

"How bad is he injured?"

"All his nails have been pulled out, his fingers and toes are broken, as well as his elbow, the wound in his side has been reopened but I've got it under control. And most of his body has got cuts all over. As well as whatever the hell that woman did with that array for over twenty-four hours. I don't think he's slept for all that time either." Jean felt his fists tighten as the list was delivered, and the anger in the room was almost suffocating. Mustang sighed and his face tightened with rage. "He's been screaming so much that he's lost his voice for the moment."

Jean could hear Riza gasping slightly. She then assumed the steely I-want-to-shoot-something-look that gave people the urge to run away.

This just wasn't okay. Not at all.

* * *

Ed shifted a bit as he woke up. He was sitting on something warm, leaning into it. Then he remembered what had happened before he fell asleep. He opened his eyes and blinked slowly. "Colonel?"

"Hey… take it easy." Ed was trying to move away from the man. No matter how hurt he was, no matter how nice and warm this hug was, this still was the Colonel. Unfortunately he didn't have enough strength left to actually move away, so all he managed to do was send shooting pain up his arm and leg.

Ed groaned inwardly. Fine, he'd use the Colonel as pillow for now, god knew it was softer than that damn metal table.

"I'm cold," he whispered without thinking.

Mustang readjusted his grip, bringing Ed closer to his chest. "I know, they'll get here soon, the military knows that we're down here."

"Good. How long have we been here?"

"You've slept for three hours."

"I have, huh?"

"You can just sleep on."

"Can't, hurts." His arm and his leg were on fire, as was his skin as it was covered with a multitude of cuts. Now that he was awake, he was hardly able to understand how he had managed to sleep in the first place.

Ed didn't really have the strength to lift his head to look at Mustang's reaction, but he had a feeling that he was angry. The way that his arms tensed was proof enough.

Ed desperately wanted to escape this place. He wanted his nostrils to fill with the smell of something else than his own blood and the mouldy walls of this building. He wanted a soft bed. He wanted it so badly. And food. He hadn't eaten for about forty-eight hours. He may be unable to speak in the regular way, but he needed something to put his mind off the pain and hunger.

"Colonel?"

"Yes, Edward?"

"Do you think we could find me a burger when we get out of here?"

* * *

_God, how long has it been since he last ate?_

Roy felt his stomach clench at the thought. It had been two days ago, and he hadn't eaten much then because his painkillers made him nauseous.

"Sure, but you'll have to go to the hospital first. Then we'll smuggle in as many burgers as you want."

"Sounds like a deal."

"Although I really shouldn't let you eat such unhealthy food."

"Oh, shut up. You're not my uncle anymore."

Roy actually chuckled. No way was Ed going to die if he made remarks like that. It seemed like the whole room sighed with relief.

Roy had to say that he was slightly worried that they hadn't heard anything that signified a rescue attempt. He sighed. Ed needed a hospital quickly. "I think we're going to have to find a way out ourselves. Ed, I'm going to move you a bit so that we can begin to try and dig ourselves out."

"Okay."

The kid tensed and bit his lip as Roy shifted and put him down on the floor. Roy took the sweater he had put on top of Ed, and instead lifted his upper body and slid the garment over his head, not even bothering to get his arms through the sleeves, it would just hurt him more after all. Roy just wanted the kid to have some warmth around him as he was no longer getting any extra body heat.

Havoc understood what he was doing, and put his own coat on top of Ed.

Roy gently put the kid down on the ground. Then he, Hawkeye and Havoc went to work with removing the rubble blocking their way.

* * *

Ed was shivering. It hurt his body even more. He just wanted to sleep, but his body wouldn't let him.

_Damn that lady._

Thank god that the sweater was at least wool, and those coats were nice and warm too.

But it still wasn't enough.

Suddenly something moved at the corner of his eye. Ed slowly turned his head towards it.

_No! How was she alive?! How?!_

She had blood running down her thigh from a deep cut, but she had made a makeshift tourniquet from her trouser leg. She limped slowly towards him. Nobody else had noticed her, they were caught up in removing the rubble. Ed tried screaming for help, but with his voice gone, they couldn't hear him as they kept working.

The woman came over to him, sitting down on her knees. She put a hand on his cheek, stroking it with her thumb. She whispered to him. "We're not done yet, my dear, but we're so close! Your song is so strong!"

She lifted up the sweater, her hands moving towards the array. Ed lifted his automail arm, it was such hard work, but he tried pushing her arms away, panic rising in his chest.

_Damn it! I was free!_

It didn't really work too well, and his hand fell to his side.

The woman smiled in a loving fashion, moving her hands forward towards the array.

Suddenly there was a burst of fire and two gun shots. And then the woman was screaming, fire consuming her.

"You dare touch my subordinate again?! You're going to wish you were dead!" Mustang shouted.

Ed only watched as the woman was slowly burning to death, screaming her head off.

A pair of strong arms were suddenly pulling him away from the horrifying sight. His nose was filled with the scent of cigarettes. "You okay, Chief?" Havoc asked him urgently.

"Yes."

Grace Hopkins let out one last scream, and then she fell silent, her burning corpse falling to the ground, just a metre from Ed.

"Fullmetal!? Is he alright?!"

"Yes," Havoc called back.

"Good."

* * *

**So, the next chapter is the last one, but I'm going to make a sequel, just because an idea popped into my head, so I'll probably post the first chapter during the next two days!**


	14. Chapter 14

**So here we are, the last chapter...**

**Thank you so much to everybody who has taken an interest in this story! Thanks to all the readers, favouriters, followers and reviewers! You have all helped in making this last week amazing for me!**

**And like I said, I will begin a sequel which I will start posting hopefully from tomorrow on, so I hope that you will want to read that as well!**

**So thank you, everyone! And I hope you'll all have a splendid Christmas!**

* * *

**Chapter Fourteen**

Mustang had run over to Ed to remove him from the charred corpse. He lifted him up, Edward gasped because of the pain shooting up his arm, but he preferred not being near that woman, even if she was dead. The man was still angry, barely containing his rage.

"Thanks," Ed whispered.

"Don't mention it." Mustang spoke through gritted teeth.

Ed had to admit he was slightly scared by this version of Roy Mustang. He had heard stories about how protective the Colonel was of his subordinates and how he took care of them, but before now, Ed had just known him as a smug bastard who only cared about himself and how to get as many dates as possible.

This was not the selfish bastard that Ed knew.

And he suddenly understood why his subordinates were so loyal to him.

But he was still an annoying bastard.

Ed lifted his head slightly and saw that the man was looking much less like his usual self. He had bags under his eyes and stubble was covering his chin.

_So I'm not the only one who hasn't gotten any sleep for the last two days._

Ed was put back down on the ground, wincing because of his arm and leg, and his ribs as well. After that encounter, the man obviously wanted Ed closer in case something else should happen. And judging by how goddamn defenceless he had been, Ed didn't really object.

Ed didn't know how long he spent watching them trying to dig their way out, but suddenly something happened that made his heart jump with relief.

"Hello? Anyone there?"

"Yes! This is Colonel Roy Mustang!"

"We've been sent by Lieutenant Colonel Maes Hughes! Have you apprehended the criminal?!"

"Yes, and The Fullmetal Alchemist is safe. We're trapped down here!"

"Is there anyone else in there with you?"

"Yes, First Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye and Second Lieutenant Jean Havoc. None of us are critically injured, but Edward Elric needs medical assistance. The criminal has been eliminated as they opposed arrest and posed a threat to the Fullmetal Alchemist's life."

"We have brought medical personnel who will take him with them in an ambulance."

With four strong soldiers working on removing the rubble from the other side, they had cleared a path for them in two hours, and Mustang once again carried Ed, handing him to the medical personnel outside and putting him on a stretcher.

Ed was a bit glad that the Colonel decided to accompany him in the ambulance. The two doctors had some very suspicious syringes, but after Mustang threatened him with a court-martial, Ed agreed. He fell asleep not long after.

* * *

When he woke up, he was lying in a hospital bed. His head felt fuzzy, no doubt due to the painkillers. His left arm was in a cast and he had splints on his fingers. His toes looked horrible and his multitude of cuts were itching.

There were four people in the room with him. Mustang, Hawkeye, Havoc and Anthony were standing by the bed. Ed noticed that he had got a rather large room entirely for himself, then he realised that he was actually a military officer, and that that may have something to do with it.

"Hi," he croaked. He had regained some of his voice, so he guessed he'd been out for a while.

The others in the room looked relieved and Anthony took a step forwards.

"Hi, Ed! You had me so worried! Mum too! When I told her what happened, she was absolutely horrified and made the neighbours form a search party and everything! I'm so glad that you're safe! I should have done something when Miss Hopkins attacked you! I'm sorry."

"Slow down! And it wasn't your fault! **I'm** the military officer, and I got knocked out first, remember? I'm just glad she didn't kill you."

Anthony smiled a bit.

"Anyway, my Mum made this for you."

Anthony went over to the nightstand and picked up a box and opened the lid for Ed to see. Inside was a giant chocolate cake with frosting and chocolate letters spelling out "GET WELL SOON, ED!"

Ed was touched by the woman's concern. "Say thanks from me."

"I will. I told her about who you really are, and she grew really concerned, but then she became all flustered with how she had had a celebrity in her home and then she started crying over how I'm friends with a State Alchemist and how good it was that I finally had someone who understood my academic interest and all." He mumbled the last part.

Ed smiled slightly.

Then the door suddenly burst open. "NERDY-BOY! THERE YOU ARE!"

_How the hell does she know where I am?_

Catherine was grinning, taking in Edward's state. "What the heck happened to you?" She suddenly looked confused.

"How did you know where I was?"

"Whoa! What happened to your voice? Anyways, my aunt works here as a nurse, and she told me!" She looked him up and down before walking over to his swollen and bandaged toes. "What happened?! Are these broken?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"I got taken by the serial killer."

"And you're still alive?! Wow! But you remember, I did warn you to take care!"

"I did, but that didn't exactly help when it turned out to be the school nurse!"

"Fair point." She took in the room's other occupants. "What are you doing here, Mr. Harrison?"

"Colonel, you explain," Ed said as he instead ate a piece of cake.

"Colonel? Whatcha mean?" Catherine was obviously confused.

Mustang sighed. "My name is Colonel Roy Mustang, I've been posing as State Alchemist Edward Elric's uncle during an undercover mission to track down the serial killer. The man you know as James Harrison is really Second Lieutenant Jean Havoc, and this is First Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye."

"Uncle…? But that means that **you're** Edward Elric! The Fullmetal Alchemist!" She looked excitedly at Ed.

Ed gave a weary nod.

"Cool!"

"Catherine! You're not supposed to be here! You could get me fired for this! I told you no when you asked! Now go home!" A nurse was suddenly pulling Catherine by the arm, removing her from the room. "I am dreadfully sorry, Mr. Elric, it won't happen again!"

"Get well soon, Nerdy-Boy!"

Ed blushed at the nickname.

"What a fitting nickname," Mustang said.

"Oh, shut up, Robbie-Boy."

Mustang twitched and Havoc chuckled.

"How long have I been here?" Ed asked.

"You were brought here two days ago. You have got skin grafts on parts of your chest in order to render the array ineffective. You also needed a-hundred-and-twenty-two stitches, and the rest you already know," Mustang said.

"That's a lot of stitches."

"According to the nurse, you set a hospital record for people under twenty-five."

"Great," he said sarcastically.

There was a series of familiar clanking noises, and suddenly Al and Winry burst through the door.

"Brother!" Al shouted as he rushed forwards.

"Edward! What have you done now?!" Winry shouted angrily.

"What does it look like? I got tortured by a crazy nurse."

"Brother! How are you? What did she do to you? Lieutenant Hawkeye wouldn't tell and me and Winry have been so worried about you! I should have known something was wrong when you didn't call for a week!"

"Don't worry, Al, I'll be fine in a few weeks."

"So this is your little brother?" Anthony asked, saving Ed from being coddled.

"Yes, Al, Winry, this is Anthony Evans, my new friend and pen pal."

The three of them shook hands, and the military officers soon left the room to leave the four of them alone.

* * *

Once Ed had been released from the hospital, he had absolutely refused the wheelchair and was stubbornly hopping along with one crutch. Him and Al were back together, and Winry had gone back to Resembool a few days previously, as Granny Pinako had a patient coming in to be fitted with automail and she needed assistance.

Havoc was driving and Ed, Al, Hawkeye and Mustang were sitting in the back, and, seeing as how Ed was injured and should have some space, Hawkeye had volunteered to sit next to Al. They drove past a bookshop and Ed told Havoc to park the car.

"What's up, Chief?"

"I've got something I have to do."

Al followed Ed inside. Ed had already told him about how Anthony was a budding alchemist that needed some proper and accurate literature, and so he didn't say anything. Ed walked up to the owner of the bookshop. He was a man in his forties with a small, brown moustache, medium-length brown hair, a green hat and west, white shirt and brown trousers. He smiled expectantly at Edward.

"Can I help you, Sir?"

"Yes, I'm renewing a friend's bookshelf and want to get him some first-rate books."

"What are you looking for?"

"About fifty or sixty volumes including books on arachnids, biology, physics, advanced mathematics, insects, alchemy, geology, geometry, astronomy, that sort of thing."

The man's jaw dropped. "A-are you sure you can afford this?"

"Yes, I'm fairly certain. I just made a rather large withdrawal from my State Alchemist's account."

"I guess that means you're Edward Elric?!" The man looked excitedly at him.

"Yes."

"Well, in that case, I must thank you, Sir for helping to catch that madwoman. She killed the daughter of one of my dearest friends, so I suggest we give you a ten per cent discount."

"Great!"

"Now follow me."

It ended with Ed hopping out of the bookshop with Al carrying five large boxes filled with books, followed by the owner giving them a cheerful wave. They had ended up buying about a hundred volumes.

"Where to next, Chief?" Havoc asked as he got into the car.

Ed gave him Anthony's address and they were at his house in fifteen minutes. Al carried the books, and they were soon knocking on the Evans' door.

"Oh, hi, Ed! How nice to see you out of the hospital!" Mrs. Evans exclaimed. "I'll go get Anthony for you."

Anthony joined them in the hallway in thirty seconds. "Hi, Ed! Hi, Al!" Anthony had taken to Al just as good as Ed, and lit up as he saw them. "Why are carrying all those boxes for?"

"I'm fulfilling a promise I made to myself about renewing you bookshelf," Ed said, grinning.

Anthony looked awe-struck. "W-w-what? F-f-for me?"

"Yup. Let's go into your room so that you can have a look."

Al put the boxes down in Anthony's bedroom, and after Ed motioned for him to open them up, the kid practically dove into them, looking at each and every one of the titles.

Ed was smiling at the gleeful look on Anthony's face. He liked the fact that Anthony accepted the gift because he knew Ed well enough to know that he wouldn't accept a refusal. After he stared at the brand new volumes from all the scientific fields he was interested in for about two minutes of stunned disbelief, he muttered a weak "thanks" before he suddenly shouted excitedly "MUM! COME LOOK AT THIS!"

The woman came into the room, taking in the multitude of books, her jaw dropping. She just pointed at Ed, her eyes filling with tears. "Y-you bought him this?"

Ed nodded. The woman started outright sobbing with gratitude, hugging her son, seeing as how Ed wasn't really in a condition to be hugged. "Th-thank you my dear boy! I would never have been able to afford this! Thank you! Thank you!" She then put her hands on Ed's cheeks and kissed his forehead.

Ed was still grinning when he left the apartment. He was going to remember this for a long time.

All in all, the mission had gone rather well. They had got the end result they were hoping for, and Ed had gained a new friend, just as an added bonus. So except for the torture, Ed guessed that if this was how military missions were going to be, he would be able to take being a dog of the military until he got his brother's body back.


End file.
